The Airwaves Plymouth Raiders are delighted to announce the signing of American point guard, Eric Flato, from Yale University in the USA. Flato becomes Raiders' second player signed for the 2009/10 season, following new club captain Allister Gall.
Coach Gary Stronach is excited to have secured his second player of the summer. "I'm absolutely delighted to have Eric on board with us," he said. "He had a quality college career at Yale and he's a very steady point guard. He averaged double digits in his college years and can hurt a team in a variety of ways, shooting from deep as well as getting to the basket."
Flato leaves Yale with a fantastic reputation, and records that establish him as one of Yale's premier players in history. Flato is 2nd all-time at Yale in three- point field goals made with 213, he's also Yale's all- time leader in three-point field goal attempts with 568, 13th in school history in scoring with 1,193 career points, 5th all time in steals (134) and 8th in assists (295). He was also the recipient of a number of honours throughout his time at Yale, with unanimous First Team All-Ivy League selection, the Ivy League Player of the Year award, Pre Season Ivy League Player of the Year nominations, and a number of both Player of the Week and Freshman of the week selections. He also leaves Yale with a very good 79% career free throw average.
6'1" Flato was born in Piedmont, California, and is 23 years old. During his senior year, at a game held at Stanford between the home team and Yale, more than 100 of Eric's family and friends showed up to watch him play. He attended Piedmont High School, graduating with a string of basketball honours to his name.
"I'm really excited about the upcoming season with Plymouth," said Flato. "I've heard nothing but good things about the club, Coach Stronach, and the city. I look forward to working hard everyday to improve upon what the team accomplished last season. I'm also really excited about working with the community and promoting basketball in Plymouth. I'm expecting our team to be extremely competitive throughout the season. If we play together, we will have the opportunity to win a lot of games."
"We're overjoyed to have signed Eric," said Raiders Chief Executive, Dave Briggs. "He's proved himself in the States, during which time he's played some of the best University teams in the country. He's never backed down from a challenge, and I think he's going to fit in great with the team this year. His paperwork has all gone off to England Basketball and the Home Office to enable us to get his work permit sorted out. Bearing in mind the problems we encountered last year with DeAnotine's Visa, the sooner we can get that all sorted, the better."
Flato becomes the fourth Ivy League player to play for the Raiders in their 26 year history, following John Miller (Dartmouth) in 1988, Bill Mohler (Harvard) in 1991, and Kirk Lowry (Brown) in 1992.
"We're now getting pretty close to completing our third signing," added Briggs. "We hope to have more news by the end of the week, and maybe even sooner. Gary's working really hard talking to players from all over the place, often calling and emailing until 3am or 4am in the morning."
Source: www.bbl.org.uk
