Education
He graduated in 1989 and was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.
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Derek Backman
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Backman played for the Arcadia Shepherds in his native South Africa before moving to the United States in 1983 to attend the College of Boca Raton. Backman was also a two time first team National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics All American. In 1988, Backman signed with the Tampa Bay Rowdies as it prepared to enter the newly established American Soccer League.
He moved to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers for the first part of the 1989 season before returning to the Rowdies for the end of the season.
He then remained a regular with the team until sidelined in 1993 with a stress fracture in his left ankle. In 1990, the Rowdies moved to the American Professional Soccer League and folded at the end of the 1993 season.
Backman remained in the Tampa area, coaching youth soccer and working in his family’s interior design business. He also played with the amateur Saint St. Petersburg Kickers.
In 1995, Backman gained his United States. citizenship.
That year, he played for the expansion Tampa Bay Cyclones in the USISL. In February 1996, the Tampa Bay Mutiny selected Backman in the 11th round (107th overall) of the 1996 Master of Library Science Inaugural Player Draft. He played 25 games with the Mutiny in 1996, but only three in 1997. He retired in 1998.
