East Grand Rapids graduate Drew Bremer ‘13 is attending the 2016 Rio Paralympics as an athlete on the United States soccer team.

Bremer has cerebral palsy that affects the upper right half of his body. This qualifies him as a Paralympic athlete. His competes amongst teammates with a wide range of disabilities from brain tumors to strokes.

Prior to competing at the Olympic level, Bremer competed on the East Grand Rapids varsity soccer team all four years.

“Playing for EGR was a huge part of my development as a player. I was fortunate enough to make varsity at a young age, so that helped me to learn to play against great players in pressure packed games,” Bremer said.

Bremer contributed six goals during his high school soccer career and was also a member of the District Championship team his senior year.

Former East Grand Rapids coach Daniel Siminski told MLive that he remembers the talent and inspiration Bremer was for the team noting Bremer’s disability, “didn’t hold him back.”

After graduation Bremer continued to play soccer at Kalamazoo College on the first team as central defender. His talent caught to attention of national teach coach Stuart Sharp who invited him to train with the National team in California.

“ I actually saw a video on twitter that the U.S women’s team sent to the Paralympic team after we qualified for Rio (The Paralympics) last Summer. I then sent an email to our head coach, who invited me out to my first training camp in October.”

Upon completion of his first training camp Bremer continued to pursue his love for soccer and eventually earned a spot on the 14 man squad for the Paralympics.

“It is an incredible honor to represent the U.S at the Paralympics. I definitely feel pride as well as nerves when I line up for the national anthem before our games.” Bremer said.

So far Bremer has already competed in two matches in Rio. In their opening match against Holland Bremer played the full match as a winger which concluded 2-2 draw. The team suffered a 2-0 loss against Iran in their second match. The team very disappointingly crashed out of the tournament after a 3-2 loss to Argentina. Nevertheless, it was no doubt a great experience for Bremer, and a proud moment for East Grand Rapids Soccer.