Zooey Elizabeth Regina "Effy" Perry (born 22 September 1996) is a British

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

player who plays for Lambertseter IF, a team based in the

Lambertseter Lambertseter () is a suburb of the city of Oslo, Norway, and is part of the borough of Nordstrand. Lambertseter was built over a short period starting from 1951, and was the very first modern suburb of Oslo. A Tram line was built to the neighborho ...

suburb of

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, and compete in the Norwegian 3rd & 4th divisions.

College career

Upon starting her undergraduate degree at

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...

, Perry joined the Women's Handball team. Initially, she played in the right-back/wing position due to being a left-handed thrower but moved to the goalkeeping position towards the end of the season due to injuries. In the 2016–2017 season, the team lost the LUSL (London University Sports Leagues) Handball League to UCL. In Perry's second season, she was named the captain of the Women's team. The team were crowned champions of the LUSL Handball League in 2017–2018 without losing a single game, and enjoyed its best result in the British University Handball Championships since winning the tournament in 2015–2016, finishing in third place after losing 12–7 to eventual winners

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

. At the annual Middlesex University Sports Awards on 18 May 2018, Perry was announced as the winner of the 'Captain of the Year' award for her work in developing the club and leading them to a successful season. Between 2018 and 2020, Perry remained captain of the Women's team, but they played only once in two seasons, as the number of new players was small in comparison to the number of players who left after the 2017–2018 season.

Senior career

Olympia HC

Zooey Perry signed for

Olympia HC Olympia Handball Club London is a handball club from London, England that has men’s and women’s teams competing in the Premier Handball League, Regional Development League and a number of Junior leagues. Club history The club was establish ...

prior to the 2018–2019 season. The team went undefeated during the season and won the

Premier Handball League The Premier Handball League is the highest level of men's club handball in England. It is organised by the England Handball Association. History The Premier Handball League was formerly known as the Super 8, and was re-branded for the 2017/18 s ...

(PHL) title. Perry did not appear in the 2018–2019 Premier League season for Olympia, playing instead with the club's development team in the Regional Handball League – South East. She first played for the Premier League squad in the Liverpool International Handball Tournament on 25–26 May; Olympia won the tournament, defeating the previous year's winners, Bergen of

. On 19 October 2019, Perry made her Premier Handball League debut for Olympia in a 23–22 loss to North East Manchester Hawks. Her first Premier League win came two weeks later, in a narrow 22–21 win vs

West London Eagles Handball Club West London Eagles Handball Club is a team handball club based in Gunnersbury Park, West London. The club has men's and women's teams in the EHA national Premier Handball League (former men's Super 8 and women's Super 7 league) and development ...

on 2 November. In an Instagram post, Perry confirmed that she had parted company with Olympia due to 'out-of-Handball commitments' on 23 December. In the same post, she confirmed that she had transferred to the previous season's Premier League runners-up and Olympia's rivals, London GD.

London GD

Perry joined the travelling London GD squad for their 21–20 win vs NEM Hawks on 11 January 2020, before making her debut 15 days later in GD's 33–25 win against West London Eagles Handball Club.

Lambertseter IF

In September 2020, Perry relocated to Oslo, Norway to sign with Lambertseter IF in the Norwegian 3rd & 4th divisions. Due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic, she would not make her debut until 30th September 2021, as Lambertseter 2 lost the opening game of the 4th division season to Kjelsås IL 3.

Personal life

Perry came out as

transsexual Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment ...

while in

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

at the age of 13 and began to transition in September 2013. In a tweet from her personal

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account after Olympia's 2018–2019 league-winning final game of the season, Perry stated that she believes she is the first openly transsexual player in

British Handball '' , abbrev= BHA , logo= , logosize= 300px , countryflag= Great Britain , iocnation= United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (GBR) , url= http://www.britishhandball.com , sport= Handball , othersport1= Beach Handball , othersport2= ...

history, as well as the first to be a member of a

-winning team. Since September 2020, she has been a Pro Ambassador for

Athlete Ally Athlete Ally is a nonprofit LGBTQ athletic advocacy group based in the United States. They focus on making athletic communities more inclusive and less discriminatory and helping athletes to advocate for LGBTQ equality. History As an athlete i ...

, a nonprofit LGBTQ+ athletic advocacy group that is "committed to making athletic communities more inclusive and less discriminatory and helping athletes to advocate for LGBTQ+ equality".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Zooey Living people British female handball players People from Billingham Sportspeople from County Durham Transgender sportspeople Transgender women English LGBT sportspeople LGBT handball players 1996 births People educated at Northfield School Alumni of Middlesex University English expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate handball players