Sports Club “Prometey” was established in September 2018. Passionate about sports and business-partners, Volodymyr Dubynskyi and Pavlo Chukhno, who was a professional basketball player in the past and played for Ukrainian Superleague clubs such as “Dynamo” (Dnipropetrovsk), CSC ZSU (Kyiv), “Lvivska politekhnika”, were at the origins of its creation.
Two priority directions were chosen for the development of the club: basketball and volleyball. The idea of developing a basketball club immediately received support from the Basketball Federation of Ukraine.
The President of Federation Mykhailo Brodskyidirected the management of “Prometey” to start the team already in the 2018/2019 season in the High league of the Ukrainian Championship. Large-scale work on personnel and club management selection, on coaching staff formation and team composition was carried out within the shortest possible time. As the head coach, Dmytro Markov, who had experience in working for “Dnipro” as well as for youth Ukrainian National teams of different ages, led the team.
The sports direction of the club was strengthened by one of the leading domestic specialists Kyrylo Bolshakov, who succeeded in coaching of both various men’s and women’s Ukrainian teams and, before moving to Kamianske, successfully worked in Italy. Kyrylo Bolshakov took on the position of the basketball club Sports Director.
2018/2019 season
For its first training session, “Prometey” got together on September 17, 2018. In fact, three weeks before the High League championship started. Eventually, in the premiere season, the club’s colours were defended by the following basketball players: guards Supreme Hannah, Yaroslav Kadyhrob, Serhii Alforov, Serhii Startsev, Martez Walker, Andrii Hutsaliuk, Andrii Kobets, Oleksii Chygrynov; forwards Oleksandr Misiats, Maks Konate, Andrii Kulish, Ihor Krivtsov, Vitalii Malchevskyi, Yurii Lokhmanchuk; center Serhii Zagreba.
“Prometey” was included to the eastern group and 8 teams were their opponents: BC “Kryvyi Rih”, “Niko-Basket” (Mykolayiv), BC “Mariupol”, “Kharkivski Sokoly”, “Zolotyi vik” (Kropyvnytskyi), SumSU (sumy), “Kremin” (Kremenchuk), “Dnipro-2-DVUFK” (Dnipro).
Their first match, players from Kamianske played on October 6, 2018 in Kropyvnytskyi againast “Zolotyi vik”. The debut was successful for our team: thw win with a score of 86:80. In the fourth game, “Prometey” lost oin Mariupol 74:85, however, after that, there was a streak of 28 straight wins at the first stage – it was obvious that Dmytro Markov’s team had no competitors at all. Some of these wins were obtained in 2019 at the Palace of Sports SC “Prometey”, which was reconstructed thanks to efforts of the club management.
“Prometey” took a victorious march through the second stage of the championship and then through the playoffs. At the second stage, the eight of the best teams quarters of the eastern and western zones was formed. The team from Kamianske played only against the teams they did not confront at the first stage (“Ternopil- TNEU”, BC “Rivne-OSHSM”, “Staryi Lutsk-University”, “Khimik-2” from Yuzhne). In 16 matches they suffered just one road defeat from “Ternopil-TNEU”.
In the semi-final playoff series, “Prometey” left no chance to “Khimik-2” (85:58, 88:77), and in the final, to BC”Rivne-OSHSM” (88:55, 85:70, 89:55) and, with every right became the best team of the High League!
The debut in the Cup of Ukraine was also successful for “Prometey”. Initially, the team from Kamianske turned out to be stronger than “Cherkaski Mavpy-2 and “Hoverla” from Ivano-Frankivsk in the two-round confrontation. In the 1/ final, Dmytro Markov’s squad played against a representative of the SuperLeague, BC “Odesa”. There was an exciting fight in both matches: at home, “Prometey” lost 80:85, and in Odesa, one minute before the final buzzer, our team was winning with the needed point differencial, but missed two long-range shots and the resulting win 85:83 was not enoughto make it to the quarterfinal.
2019/2020 season
On May 14, 2019 in Kyiv, the Basketball Federation of Ukraine held a meeting with presidents and managers of nine Ukrainin clubs, including SC “Prometey”. The President of the Federation gave a speech, claiming that SuperLeague could be extended at the expense of “Prometey”.
With a decision about joining SuperLeague, a new stage in the life of our club has begun. In the summer off-season period, the management conductedan active transfer campaign. First of all, personnel changes affected the club’s coaching staff. The position of the Head coach was offered to the authoritative Latvian specialist Karlis Muizhnieks.
Comparing to the 2018/2019 season, only Maks Konate, Oleksandr Misiats, Ihor Krivtsov and Vitalii Malchevskyi kept their positions in the game “cage”. Four American legionnaires at once replenished “Prometey”: Malique Trent was the most productive player of the 2018/2019 SuperLeague season in BC “Zaporizhzhia”; Randy Culpepper earlier proved himself in our league and also in Zaporizhzhia. Center Michael Myers won the title of champion of Belgium and the Czech Republic; bigman Jallen Miller came from student basketball. Domestic arrivals to “Prometey” were also highly qualified. Denys Lukashov was a member of Ukrainian National team; Oleksandr Antypov and Illia Sydorov, as part of “Khimik”, were champions of Ukraine.
At the pre-season meeting with the team, the club’s management aimed players at getting into the top-four at the end of the season and further participation in the EuroCups in the 2020/2021 seasons. Its debut match in the SuperLeague, “Prometey” played on September 28, 2019 at the home sports complex against BC Zaporizhzhia and defeated the rival in a tense fight 98:89. From first games of the championship, “Prometey” has demonstrated its ambitions and, after six straight wins, it became one of the championship leaders.
However, the team from Kamianske failed to keep up with the high pace. Bright wins took turns with unfortunate defeats. One of such fails in early March, when the match in Mykolaiv was lost in last seconds, led to resignation of Karlis Muizhnieks. Kyrylo Bpolshakov became the acting head coach, Dmytro Markov and Serhii Alforov kept their positions.
“Prometey” could not hold a single match under the leadership of Kyrylo Bolshakov: right one week after the failure in Mykolaiv, on March 12, Basketball Federation of Ukraine made a decision to end the championship early due to a coronavirus pandemic. The final places for the teams were assigned according to the tournament position at that moment. “Dnipro” was declared the national champion, “Kyiv-Basket” became a silver medallist and “Prometey”, which, at the moment of ending the championship, won exactly two thirds of played matches – 16 out of 24, got bronze medals.
In the Cup of Ukraine, the team did not manage to advance to Final Four. In thel1/8 finals, “Prometey” easily proved their superiority over the High league representative BC “Novomoskovsk”. In the quarterfinals, BC “Odesa” was detertmined as an opponent for “Prometey”. As well as in the 2018/2019 season, both Cup duels against the team from Odesa were played in a fierce fighting, and again, fortune smiled to the club from Odesa. In the first confrontation at the home arena, the team from Kamianske lost by six points, although in Odesa within regular time they managed to play this deficit back. However, in overtime, the ticket to the semi-final was won by “Odesa”, for whom the defeat by five points was unacceptable.
After the season ended, FBU determined the winners of the prizes for the best players in various roles. Following the results, the captain of “Prometey” Denys Lukashov became the best guard of the SuperLeague, and Michael Myers – was the best center. Apart from that, Denys Lukashov entered the “Prometey” history as the first player of the club who defended the honour of Ukrainian National team in official matches. This happened in qualification matches of the National team for the Euro2021 against the teams of Austria and Hungary.
Participation of four “Prometey” players at once Denys Lukashov, Maks Konate, Michael Myers and Illia Sydorov in the Superleague-2020 All-Stars match became a significant event in the club’s history. First three played right in gala-match, herewith, Karlis Muizhnieks was one of the legionnaires’ team coaches: and Illia Sydorov participated in the skill competition. In addition, Denys Lukashov competed in the contest of shooters, sitting in third place in it; Konate and Myers took part in the dunk competition.
2020/2021 season
The main events of summer off-season period 2020 were signing a contract with a new head coach, Vitalii Chernii, a coach with work experience in several Superleague clubs and National team of Ukraine. The newcomers of the men’s “Prometey” were players from different Ukrainian clubs with huge experience of playing for the National team of Ukraine: center Viacheslav Petrov, Forward Oleksandr Belikov, guard Maksym Lutsenko and also American legionnaires D.J. Stephens and Marquis Reed. At the same time, the king of dunks D.J. Stephens won Ukrainian championship in the 2016/2017 season as part of “Budivelnyk” Kyiv. All these players, as well as Serhii Pryimak joined Denys Lukashov, Illia Sydorov, Michael Myers and Oleksandr Antypov – the players of the team’s bronze roster. Two weeks before the championship started,”Prometey’s” roster was strengthened with experienced guard of Ukrainian National team, Oleksandr Lypovyy, who was back to the motherland after several years of playing for Greek clubs.
2021 turned out to be a year of “Prometey” at Ukrainin arenas as our team became the strongest one in the Superleague!
The path of men’s “Prpometey” to the title of champion was extremely difficult. For some months, the team clearly lacked stability; at the same time, changes in its roster did not affect the drastic improvement in results. Back in 2020, the club broke up with Marquis Reed and for his position, Rashad Vaughn, a shooter with an experience of playing in NBA, was signed. The front line was strengthen with experienced Sean Evans.
The key events in the men’s team happened in the early April, after “Prometey” successively stopped fighting in the FIBA EuroCup and the Cup of Ukraine. In the European tournament, at the 1/8 final stage, the team from Kamianske lost to Belgian “Mons” (before that, they undefeated passed the group stage, surpassing compatriots from “Kyiv-Basket”, Bulgarian “Rilski Sportist” and Austrian “Kapfenberg”) and in the quarterfinal of the second-ranked domestic tournament to “Budivelnyk” Kyiv. After the road defeat in Yuzhne within Superleague, changes in the team’s coaching staff occurred: Vitalii Chernii was replaced by Israeli specialist Ronen Ginzburg. Under his heading, Czech club “Nimburk” repeatedly won the championship and the Cup of their country, and Czech National team won the ticket to the final part of the World Cup and, already after Ronen became the head coach of “Prometey”, to the Olympic 2020. On the day of signing the contract with Ronen Ginzburg, “Prometey won in Odesa, and then, under his direct leadership, attained 7 wins in 9 matches of the regular season left to the start of the playoffs. The first part of the championship, “Prometey” ended being defeated by “Dnipro”. That meant that in the four-round tournament, “Prometey” finished in third place and in the quarterfinal, they supposed to play against “Khimik” Yuzhne.
Our team obtained a “dry” victory in the quarterfinal series (3:0) due to two home wins (82:69 and 91:79) and one road one (81:63). Semi-final series with “Dnipro” turned out to be one of the most exciting ones at the entire playoff stage. “Prometey” began it with a road failure (63:72), but the managed to tie the score in the series in Dnipro (98:85) and achieve two needed wins at their home arena (89:53 and 86:79). In addition, Illia Sydorov became the MVP of the playoff semi-final series.
In the Final., “Prometey” played against BC “Zaporizhzhia” and in this series the team was led by Ronen Ginzburg’s first assistant Milenko Bogicevic, as the head coach of “Prometey”, in accordance to the contract with Czech Basketball Federation, left to the location of the National team of this country to prepare for Olympic-2020 qualifications.
Milenko Bogicevic as well as all players of “Prometey” did their best in the decisive matches of the season. Two convincing victories were attained in Kamianske (85:57 and 79:54), and on June 14, a real thriller unfolded in Zaporizhzhia. In the course of the third match of the series, the team was behind by 19 points but managed to brilliantly hold the second half of the game and snatch a historic victory – 88:83! Rashad Voughn scored 30 points in this match and became the MVP of the final series. Apart from Rashad, the historic “gold” was brought to “Prometey” by the following players: Denys Lukashov, Illia Sydorov, Viacheslav Petrov, D.J. Stephens, Michel Myers, Sean Evans, Oleksandr Lypovyy, Oleksandr Belikov, Maksim Lutsenko.
2021/2022 season
In summer of 2021, the main event in “Prometey” life was the club’s relocation from Kamianske to Slobozhanske due to a conflict with the mayor of Kamianske. The team started representing Dnipropetrovsk region. The founder of “Prometey” Volodymyr Dubynskyi commented the moving as follows:
"We will be located in Slobozhanske, represent the region, and create children’s schools in it. We believe we will not lose those fans who attended the team’s games, although what happened is a tragedy for me personally".
2021/2022 season started for “Prometey” with qualification for the Champions League and the Super Cup of Ukraine. Our team coped with both task brilliantly: first, in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, they won a ticket to the group round of the Champions League, becoming the first Ukrainian team to overcome the qualification stage, and thenwon the second trophy in its history! On the way to the group round of the Champions League, “Prometey”, first, defeated the hosts from “Levski Lukoil – 96:56, in the semi-final they beat Czech “Opava” – 100:76 and on September 18, 2021 in a decisive tense match, they surpassed Russian “Parma” – 67:65.
Four days after this historic success, “Prometey” as a current champion of Ukraine, in a bright match with attacking basketball surpassed the holder of the Cup of Ukraine “Budivelnyk” Kyiv – 104:99 and, for the first time in its history, became the winner of the Ukrainian Super Cup! Illia Sydorov became the MVP of the final match.
In the Windrose Superleague regular season, “Prometey” won 25 matches in a row. In the Champions League, Ronen Ginzburg’s squad obtained victories over Italian “Sassari” and German “Ludwigsburg”. And then there was an unforgettable series play-in against Israeli “Hapoel Jerusalem”. In the first match, our team lost by 25 points. In the second confrontation, “Prometey”, created a miracle with the hands of Chris Dowe, who, in the last second of the overtime, hit a crazy three-pointer and brought our team to the victory.
A day later, “Prometey”, this time on the road, played a decisive match of the series, where attained a victory and entered the TOP-16 teams of the Champions League. There, two weeks later, Chris Dowe brought the team another fantastic victory (over Unicaja), hitting 3+1 with 7 seconds left to go in the fourth quarter, when our team was behind by 3 points!
However, the winning streak was not destines to continue due to the full-scale Russian invasion to Ukrainian territory on February 24, 2022. In addition to being in the TOP-16 of the Champions League, at that time, “Prometey” sat in first place in the tournament standings of the Windrose Superleague and entered the Final Four of the Cup of Ukraine. On March 5, 2022, the president of SC “Prometey” announced a disbanding of all the club’s teams and withdrawal of the men’s basketball team from participating in the Champions League.
2022/2023 season
In summer 2022, BC “Prometey” applied to two new tournaments for them – the 7DAYS EuroCup and the Latvian-Estonian basketball league. Due to the war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the club had to hold their home matches out of Ukraine and chose Latvian capital Riga as a base.
BC “Prometey” again signed contracts with six players, who played for the team in the previous season – Denys Lukashov, Oleksandr Lypovyy, Illia Sydorov, Viacheslav Petrov, D.J. Kennedy and D.J. Stephens. Also, high-class legionnaries joined the team – Caleb Agada, Ondrej Balvin, Gian Clavell, Dustin Hogue as well as players of the National team of Ukraine Issuf Sanon and Ivan Tkachenko.
Between September 1 and 11, 2022, Sanon and Tkachenko together with Denys Lukashov and Illia Sydorov, as part of Ukrainian National team, took part in the EuroBasket-2022. Issuf Sanon was the second one in the National team in number of points on average per game (12.2) and the third one in assists (3.2). Denys Lukashov was the second assistant of the National team (on average 4 assists per game).
In the Latvian-Estonian league, “Prometey” completely dominated all through the season, having 29 wins in 30 matches of the first stage. The quarterfinal playoff series up to two wins, in which our team played against Estonian club “Viimsi/Sportland” turned out to be “hot”. In the first home match, “Prometey” made a serious claim to enter the semi-final, surpassing the rival with a score of 91:69. The other way round, in Viimsi, Estonian club was stronger. A victory came to “Viimsi” in the second overtime – 107:105. Then series came back to Riga and in the third match, “Prometey” attained a difficult victory 59:57.
The Final Four took place in Tallinn. The best club of Ukraine firstly surpassed “Tartu Ulikool” (89:67) and then in a decisive match – VEF Riga (77:62). “Prometey” player Gian Clavell was recognised the MVP of the season. Besides that, Clavell and Balvin entered the symbolic five of the tournament.
The start of the debut EuroCup tournament turned out to be difficult for “Prometey”: in first 7 tours, the team had just three wins. However later, Ukrainian club became the author of stunning victorious streak 11 matches long. The group round, “Prometey” finished with 14 wins and 4 losses and entered the playoffs from the first place of Group A.
The team got the advantage of home arena in three decisive rounds of the tournament at once. In the 1/8 and the 1/4 finals it successively defeated “Towers Hamburg” from Germany (87:79) and “Promitheas Patras” (80:57).
The semi-final confrontation of Ukrainian club and Turkish “Turk Telekom” was exciting. Turkish club came to Riga in a status of the leader of their country’s regular championship. In a match between worthy opponents, both teams had equal chances to advance to the final, however, in the last seconds of the match, sporting luck smiled on “Turk Telekom” – 76:74 in their favour. As for “Prometey”, our team, getting the EuroCup semi-final, repeated the best Ukrainian clubs achievement in this tournament, which belonged to “Budivelnyk” Kyiv. Following the results of the entire season, “Prometey” forward D.J. Stephens, according to voting of fans, journalists, head coaches and captains of the EuroCup teams-participants, absolutely deservedly got into the first symbolic five of the tournament.
In 2023, there were some changes in the clubs’ management. In connection to the fact that Volodymyr Dubynskyi was elected the president of PVLU (Professional Volleyball League of Ukraine), which united 16 clubs (8 men’s and 8 women’s ones), he made a decision about withdrawal from BC “Prometey” ownership. Maria Aleksandrova became the president and the owner of SC “Prometey”. Volodymyr Dubynskyi took on the position of honorary president of the club.
