MIAMI, Fla. – Former Barry University men’s basketball player Vladimir Raymonvil signed a professional contract with ASC Mainz in Germany. He leaves Saturday to fly overseas.
He will have two weeks of training camp before the first game Sept. 20.
Raymonvil, who finished his Buccaneers career in 2013 as the school’s third-leading career free throw shooter with an .808 percentage, signed a one-year deal to play with the Third Division team. It is the same team Raymonvil’s old Bucs teammate Willie Whitfield spent his first two years playing for professionally.
“It’s very gratifying,” said Raymonvil, a 5-10 guard who is the lone American representative on this year’s ASC Mainz club. “By the grace of God I was able to eventually get something. It’s about time. I’m ready to go to work.”
In his final season with the Bucs, Raymonvil shot 35.1 percent from the three-point line and helped trigger a key overtime road win at Rollins when he canned a career-best 4 of 5 from beyond the arc to score a season-high 15 points. His 15 points fell four shy of his career high. He was a career .359 shooter from 3-point range.
A former Miami Northwestern High product, Raymonvil met with coach Alex Heidbrink in Miami in person, and the German coach who tutored Whitfield had a chance to see him play.
“I’ve been doing a lot of praying,” said Raymonvil, who received mild interest from other teams in Portugal, Dominican Republic and China. “This is the only team that fully materialized. It’s a more comfortable situation to actually interact with the coach. Just going away to another country, I wanted to make sure …
“It feels great. It’s not the NBA, but I can say I did something with basketball. I can continue growing in basketball. It feels good to know I’ll be doing something with the sport I love.”