History of BC "Prometey"

The starting point for the revival of professional basketball in Kamyansky should be considered September 2018, since the formation of the sports club "Prometey". Patrons and business partners Volodymyr Dubynsky (current president of Prometheus Insurance Company) and Pavlo Chukhno (vice-president of the sports club), who in the past was a professional basketball player and played in the clubs of the national Super League "Dynamo" (Dnipropetrovsk), stood at the origins of its creation. ), CSC ZSU (Kyiv), "Lviv Polytechnic".

Two priorities were chosen in the development of the sports club: basketball and volleyball. The idea of ​​developing a new sports club was immediately supported by local authorities, specifically the mayor of Kamyansk Andriy Bilousov, and the basketball club - and by the Basketball Federation of Ukraine.

The President of the Federation Mykhailo Brodsky directed the management of "Prometheus" to start the team in the 2018/2019 season in the Premier League of the Ukrainian Championship. In the shortest possible time, large-scale work was carried out on recruitment, club management, formation of the coaching staff and team composition. She was headed by Dmytro Markov, who had experience in working for Dnipro club teams and youth national teams of Ukraine of all ages.

Markov's assistant was Leonid Yaylo, a great basketball player of Azovmash, Budivelnyk, BC Kyiv and the national team of Ukraine, who already had experience in the coaching staffs of MBK Mykolayiv and Budivelnyk. The sports direction of the club was strengthened by one of the leading domestic specialists Kirill Bolshakov, who achieved success in the field of coaching with various men's and women's teams of Ukraine, and before moving to Kamyanske successfully worked in Italy. Kirill Bolshakov took the post of sports director of the basketball club.

In a short time, the coaching staff managed to form a capable team, which included American legionnaires Suprim Hannah and Martez Walker. Prometey gathered for his first training session on September 17, 2018, in fact three weeks before the start of the Premier League championship. As a result, in the premiere season, the colors of the new club were defended by the following basketball players: defenders Suprim Hannah, Yaroslav Kadygrob, Serhiy Alfiorov, Serhiy Startsev, Martez Volker, Andriy Gutsalyuk, Andriy Kobets, Oleksiy Chyhrynov, forwards Oleksandr Mistesh Krivtsov, Vitaliy Malchevsky, Yuriy Lokhmanchuk, center Serhiy Zagreb.

"Prometey" was included in the eastern group, and its rivals were 8 teams: BC "Kryvyi Rih", "Niko-Basket" (Nikolaev), BC "Mariupol", "Kharkiv Falcons", "Golden Age" (Kropyvnytskyi), SSU (Sumy), "Flint" (Kremenchuk), "Dnipro-2-DVUFK" (Dnipro).

Kamyanets-Podilskyi played its first official match on October 6, 2018 in Kropyvnytskyi against Zolotyi Vik. Our team won 86:80 (Kulish - 26 points, Krivtsov - 19, Suprim Hannah - 15, Kadygrob - 9, Gutsalyuk - 8, Moon - 4, Zagreb - 4, Kobets - 1). The competitions were held according to the system of paired rounds, however, the first three of them, while in Kamyansky the sports hall was being prepared for the championship, were held on the road. In the fourth game, Prometey lost in Mariupol 74:85, but then gave a series of 28 (!) Consecutive victories in the first stage - it was obvious that Dmitry Markov's team in the group is completely absent.
Some of these victories, already in the new 2019, were won in the Palace of Sports of BC Prometey, which was reconstructed with the support of the regional administration and the city hall.

The renovated hall with modern American-made parquet has become a springboard for the path of the basketball club to the Super League. Prometey won the march in the second stage of the championship, and then in the playoffs. In the second stage, eight quartets of the best teams from the western and eastern zones were formed. Kamyanka met only with those teams with which they did not play games at the first stage ("Ternopil-TNEU", BC "Rivne-OShVSM", "Stary Lutsk-University", "Khimik-2" Yuzhne). In 16 matches they suffered only one away defeat from "Ternopil-TNEU".

In the semifinal series of the playoffs, "Prometey" did not leave any chances to "Khimik-2" (85:58, 88:77), and in the final - BC "Rivne-OSHVSM" (88:55, 85:70, 89:55 ) and rightfully became the strongest team in the Premier League!

Debut for "Prometey" in the Cup of Ukraine turned out to be successful. Initially, the team from Kamianets was stronger than Cherkasy Monkeys-2 and Hoverla from Ivano-Frankivsk in the two-round confrontation. In the 1/8 finals, Dmitry Markov's wards met with a representative of the BC Odessa Super League. Both matches took place in an exciting fight: at home "Prometey" lost 80:85, and in Odessa a minute before the final siren won with the necessary points difference, but missed two shots from a distance and the final victory 85:83 was not enough to break into quarterfinal.

Both these cup matches, and the whole season as a whole, in which Suprim Hannah, Martez Walker, Sergey Alferov, Max Konate, Igor Krivtsov stood out with a strong and stable game, showed that "Prometheus" is ready to perform at the highest level, in Super League Pari-Match.

On May 14, 2019 in Kyiv, the Basketball Federation of Ukraine held a meeting with the presidents and leaders of nine Ukrainian clubs, including Prometheus. The President of the Federation Mikhail Brodsky spoke at it, making a statement that the Super League can be expanded just at the expense of "Prometey".

With the decision to join Prometey in the Super League, a new stage in the life of our club has begun. In the summer off-season, the management conducted an active transfer campaign. First of all, personnel changes affected the coaching staff of the club. Authoritative Latvian specialist Karlis Mujžnieks was invited to the position of head coach.

Under his leadership BC "Ventspils" became a multiple champion of Latvia, and the southern "Khimik" won our Super League in the season 2014/2015. Muiznieks' highest coaching achievement was a victory with the Latvian "Barons" in the FIBA ​​Eurocup in the 2007/2008 season. The coach worked fruitfully in both men's and women's national teams of Latvia. Dmitry Markov remained to work in the coaching staff of the team as an assistant to Carlisle Muiznieks. Serhiy Alferov moved to coaching, ending his career as a player.

Compared to the 2018/2019 season, only Max Konate, Oleksandr Misyats, Ihor Kryvtsov and Vitaliy Malchevsky kept their positions in the game "cage". "Prometey" was joined by four American legionnaires at once: Malik Trent was the most productive player of the Super League of the 2018/2019 season in BC "Zaporizhzhya", previously he performed well in our league, and also in Zaporizhia, Randy Kulpepper. Center Michael Myers won the title of champion of Belgium and the Czech Republic, from student basketball came bigman Jaylon Miller. Domestic newcomers of "Prometey" were also highly qualified. Denis Lukashov is a member of the national team of Ukraine, and Oleksandr Antipov and Ilya Sidorov became champions of Ukraine as part of Khimik. In addition, Ilya Sidorov became a silver medalist of the Universiade a year ago as a member of the student national team.

At the pre-season meeting with the team, the club's management aimed at getting into the top four at the end of the season and further participation in the European Cups in the 2020/2021 season. Prometheus played its debut match in the Super League on September 28, 2019 in his home sports complex with BC Zaporizhia and won a tense fight 98:89. From the first games of the championship "Prometheus" showed his ambitions and after six victories in a row became one of the leaders of the championship.

However, the people of Kamyanets failed to keep up the high pace. For example, in six matches in December, the team failed four times. This forced the coaching staff of "Prometey" to make personnel changes in the team. Agreements with Randy Culpepper and Malik Trent were terminated. They were replaced by other legionnaires who proved themselves well in the 2018/2019 season - Deon Edwin and Maurice Creek, respectively, from "Khimik" from the South and "Kyiv-Basket". Earlier, ex-player of the national team of Ukraine Ruslan Otverchenko joined the team.

The new 2020 "Prometey" began with home victories over "Zaporozhye" and "Nikolaev". However, the team failed to find stability. Bright victories, such as on the road over the leader "Dnipro", alternated with annoying defeats. One of such failures in the beginning of March when in the last seconds the match in Nikolaev was lost, led to resignation of Karlis Muizhnieks. Acting head coach was Kirill Bolshakov, Dmitry Markov and Sergei Alferov retained their positions in the coaching staff.

Prometey failed to hold a single match under the leadership of Kirill Bolshakov: exactly one week after the failure in Mykolayiv, on March 12, the Basketball Federation of Ukraine decided to end the championship ahead of schedule due to a coronavirus pandemic. The final places for the teams were assigned according to the tournament position at that time. Dnipro was declared the national champion, Kyiv-Basket won silver medals, and Prometheus won bronze medals, winning exactly two-thirds of the matches at the end of the championship - 16 out of 24.

The following basketball players contributed to winning the first in the history of the Kamyansky basketball set of awards: Denis Lukashov, Michael Myers, Jaylon Miller, Randy Culpepper, Malik Trent, Ruslan Otverchenko, Max Konate, Alexander Antipov, Ilya Sridov, Delo Sidorov, De Alexander Moon, Vitaly Malchevsky and Igor Kryvtsov.

In the Cup of Ukraine, the team failed to reach the Final Four. In the 1/8 finals, she easily proved her superiority over the representative of the top league of BC "Novomoskovsk". In the quarterfinals, the draw determined BC Odessa from Prometheus' rivals. As in the 2018/2019 season, both cup matches with Odessa took place in a fierce struggle, and again luck smiled on the Odessa club. In the first match at home, Kamyanets lost six points, and in Odessa in the main time managed to play this deficit. In overtime, Odessa won a ticket to the final, the final defeat of which by five points was acceptable to her.

At the end of the season, the FBU determined the winners of the prizes for the best players in various roles. As a result, the best defender of the Super League was the captain of "Prometheus" Denis Lukashov, and the center - Michael Myers. In addition, Denis Lukashov entered the history of "Prometey" as the first player of the club, who defended the honor of the national team of Ukraine in official matches. This happened in the qualifying matches of the national team for Euro 2021 against the teams of Austria and Hungary.

A significant event in the club's history was the participation in early February of four players of "Prometey" Denis Lukashov, Max Konate, Michael Myers and Ilya Sidorov in the Super League 2020 All-Star Game. The first three played directly in the gala match, with Carlis Muiznieks being one of the mentors of the legionnaires' team, and Ilya Sidorov took part in the Skills competition. In addition, Denis Lukashov competed in the sniper competition and took third place, and Konate and Myers - dunks

The main events of the summer off-season were the signing of a contract with a new head coach, who became Vitaliy Cherniy, a coach with experience in several clubs of the Super League and the national team of Ukraine, and the creation of the women's basketball team "Prometey". It was headed by one of the most authoritative specialists in women's basketball Victoria Bolshakova, under whose leadership in different years the best women's teams in the country were Dnepropetrovsk "Dnipro" and "Yelisavet-Basket" from Kropyvnytskyi (then Kirovograd). In the debut season, the colors of "Prometheus" will be defended by the players in the record of most of whose victories in different years in the domestic women's Super League.

Today's "Prometey" is one of the most dynamic young clubs in Ukraine. The basketball Academy was established on the basis of the club, and its first students formed the basis of the team "Prometey-2-DDTU", which in the 2020/2021 season will begin its performances in the major leagues. The construction of a new Sports Palace will be completed in Kamianskyi in the near future. This arena, which will be home to Prometey, will be one of the best in the country.