DePaul University Athletics
Perry Named to US Deaf Men's National Team
9/12/2019 2:46:00 PM | MEN'S SOCCER
CHICAGO - DePaul men's soccer defender Eddie Perry has been selected to the US Deaf Men's National Team that will partake in the 2019 Deaf Pan American Games in Temuco, Chile.
Perry joined US Deaf Soccer in 2017 before his freshman year after the president Tripp Neil reached out. He's been to the organization's training camps in Dallas, Boston, and Atlanta.
There is a total of 30-40 players on the team, but only 20 players made the roster to go to Chile.
Anyone on the team must have a hearing loss of 55 Decibels in order to be eligible to compete on the team. A new rule this year is that all players must remove any hearing equipment before taking the pitch, which Perry says makes a difference.
"It's very different, but it's a community," Perry said. "It's a totally different ballgame especially when I'm used to playing with people that talk all the time. The first time I played I didn't really know sign language and I couldn't really talk to my teammates. There was an interpreter, but it was a different experience. I'm just really glad they found me and I'm excited to go to Chile."
The junior defender explained how a third of the team is completely deaf and use sign language as their way to communicate, the next third of the team can sign and have cochlear implants so they can do both and the last third is completely oral, like Perry and some others that don't use sign language as their main language.
The team will travel to Chile from November 12 through the 17. The Pan American games are every four years, with the World Cup taking place the following year and the Deaf Olympics in 2021.
