BC Tarvas are a professional basketball club based in Rakvere, Estonia. The club competes in the Estonian-Latvian Basketball League. Their home arena is the Rakvere Sports Hall.
History 2006–2017 Rakvere Tarvas was founded in 2006 by Andres Sõber and joined the top-tier Korvpalli Meistriliiga (KML) for the 2006–07 season, replacing another Rakvere based team, the financially troubled Rakvere Palliklubi. The team name Tarvas, meaning Aurochs in Estonian, is the symbol of Rakvere and is derived from the historic name of Rakvere, Tarvanpea (Aurochs' head). Rakvere Tarvas finished the 2006–07 regular season in 6th place, reaching the playoffs, where the team was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Sõber strengthened the team significantly during the 2009 off-season by signing point guard Valmo Kriisa, young shooting guard Rain Veideman and centers Richard Anderson and Reinar Hallik. In February 2010, they were joined by forward Martin Müürsepp. Rakvere Tarvas finished the 2009–10 regular season in second place and reached the finals in the playoffs. In the finals, Rakvere Tarvas faced the top-seeded TÜ/Rock and lost the series 2 games to 4, despite winning the first 2 games. Kriisa and Veideman were named to the All-KML Team, while Sõber won the Coach of the Year award. After the season, Rakvere Tarvas lost several star players, including Kriisa, Müürsepp and Veideman, and failed to repeat their success in the 2010–11 season, finishing in fourth place. Rakvere Tarvas also joined the Baltic Basketball League for the 2010–11 season, but failed to advance past the group stage of the Challenge Cup competition.
Rakvere Tarvas spent the 2011 off-season rebuilding. The team re-acquired Valmo Kriisa and signed Latvian players Kaspars Cipruss, Rinalds Sirsniņš and Juris Umbraško. In response, some Rakvere Tarvas fans started showing their support by attending games wearing Latvian national team uniforms. Rakvere Tarvas finished the 2011–12 regular season in third place and reached the semifinals in the playoffs, where the team was defeated by BC Kalev/Cramo. The team placed third in the final standings, after defeating Rapla 2 games to 0 in the third place games.
On 22 December 2012, Rakvere Tarvas won their first Estonian Cup, beating Rapla in the final 81–64. The team came third in the 2012–13 season, once again defeating Rapla in the third place games. Reimo Tamm was the KML top scorer with 16.36 points per game, while Brandis Raley-Ross and Juris Umbraško were named to the All-KML Team. Rakvere Tarvas competed in the 2013–14 EuroChallenge but failed to advance past the group stage with a 1–5 record. The team finished the 2013–14 season in third place, losing the semifinals against BC Kalev/Cramo 0 games to 3 and defeating Tallinna Kalev in the third place games 2 games to 1. Rakvere Tarvas folded after the 2016–17 season.
2017–present For the 2017–18 season, a new Rakvere club, RSK Tarvas, was created. In 2019, they won the second tier I liiga and were promoted to the Estonian-Latvian Basketball League.
Home arena
Rakvere Sports Hall
Players
Coaches Andres Sõber 2006–2017 Madis Putko 2017–2018 Juris Umbraško 2018–2021 Martin Müürsepp 2021–2022 Vaido Rego 2022–present
Season by season SeasonTierDivisionEstonian CupRegional competitionsEuropean competitions2006–07 1 Korvpalli Meistriliiga6thQuarterfinalist2007–08 1 Korvpalli Meistriliiga 9thQuarterfinalist2008–09 1 Korvpalli Meistriliiga 6thQuarterfinalist2009–10 1 Korvpalli Meistriliiga2ndQuarterfinalist2010–11 1 Korvpalli Meistriliiga 4thRunner-upBBL Challenge Cup 2011–12 1 Korvpalli Meistriliiga3rdThird placeBBL Challenge Cup 2012–13 1 Korvpalli Meistriliiga3rdChampionBaltic Basketball League 3 EuroChallenge 2013–14 1 Korvpalli Meistriliiga3rdThird placeBaltic Basketball League 3 EuroChallenge 2014–15 1 Korvpalli Meistriliiga 4thRunner-upBaltic Basketball League 2015–16 1 Korvpalli Meistriliiga 5thQuarterfinalistBaltic Basketball League 2016–171Korvpalli Meistriliiga8thQuarterfinalistBaltic Basketball League2017–183II liiga1st2018–192I liiga1st2019–201Korvpalli Meistriliiga5thEstonian-Latvian Basketball League–2020–211Korvpalli Meistriliiga4thRunner-upEstonian-Latvian Basketball League2021–221Korvpalli Meistriliiga8thQuarterfinalistEstonian-Latvian Basketball League13th2022–231Korvpalli Meistriliiga9thQuarterfinalistEstonian-Latvian Basketball League16th
Trophies and awards Trophies Estonian League Runners-up (1): 2009–10
Estonian Cup Winners (1): 2012 Runners-up (3): 2010, 2014, 2020
Individual awards
KML Best Young Player Rain Veideman – 2010 Sander Saare – 2014 Siim-Markus Post – 2017
KML Coach of the Year Andres Sõber – 2010
KML All-Star Five Brandis Raley-Ross – 2013, 2015 Valmo Kriisa – 2010 Rain Veideman – 2010 Kaspars Cipruss – 2012 Juris Umbraško – 2013
Notes
References
External links
Rakvere Tarvas estlatbl.com