BC Yambol

Yambol
Leagues	NBL
Founded	1945; 79 years ago (1945)
Arena	Diana Hall
Capacity	3,000
Location	Yambol, Bulgaria
Team colors	Yellow and Blue
President	Valentin Revanski
Head coach	Aleksandar Aleksiev
Championships	1 Bulgarian Championship
Website	yambolbasketball.com
Home Away

BC Yambol (Bulgarian: БК „Ямбол“) is a Bulgarian professional basketball club based in Yambol. Founded in 1945, Yambol has won the Bulgarian championship once as Yambolgas. They play their home matches at the Diana Hall. The team is a regular first league participant. Former names of the club are Luskov, Tundja, Yambolen and Yambolgas.

Founded in 1945, the club joined the third edition of the Bulgarian Championship to become the first participant of this basketball championship based outside of the capital Sofia.

In 1976 the club, as "Luskov"-Yambol, appointed Simeon Varchev as new head coach, who work there until 1980. He recruit some new young players including Georgi Glouchkov, the first bulgarian played in NBA. In 1977 they won the first medal for the club, third place in the Bulgarian Cup and in 1979 the bronze medal in Bulgarian Championship. In 1980 Georgi Glouchkov moved to PBC CSKA Sofia, captain of the team Ivan Angelov retired, and even though Varchev and Ivan Glavov (one of the leading playmakers in league the time) stayed, the club relegated in to the second tier.

Yambol stayed there until 1992, when it got promoted and since then remains in the top flight.^[1] The coach of the club was Ivan Cholakov, who was team head coach in two periods- 1989-2002 and 2004-2013. In 2002, with the name of Yambolgas by sponsorship reasons, the club won the Bulgarian Championship after winning to Lukoil Academic by 3–0 in the final series.^[2] After 29 years in the top flight, Yambol withdrew from NBL, due to financial difficulties, as well as the reconstruction of their Diana arena and the lack of an available alternative basketball hall. They participate in the second division for the 2024–25 season, mainly with players from their academy, ^[3] and confirmed their intention of returning to the NBL for the 2025–26 season.^[4]

• Bulgarian Championship
  • Winners (1): 2002
  • Runners-up (1): 2001
  • Bronze medalist (5): 1979, 2000, 2003, 2011, 2012
• Bulgarian Cup
  • Bronze medalist (4): 1977, 2000, 2001, 2002

BC Yambol roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age F 10 Marinov, Pavel (C) 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) 95 kg (209 lb) 36 – (1988-06-12)12 June 1988 G/F 6 Lilov, Ivan 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 89 kg (196 lb) 36 – (1988-08-06)6 August 1988 SG 32 Kiss, Peter 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 90 kg (198 lb) 27 – (1997-05-09)9 May 1997 F/C 34 Currie, Taylor 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) 102 kg (225 lb) 24 – (2000-08-15)15 August 2000 PF 7 Mihaylov, Nikolay 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 90 kg (198 lb) 24 – (2000-08-15)15 August 2000 PG 5 Walters, Shaquille 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 91 kg (201 lb) 27 – (1997-10-17)17 October 1997 SG 27 Matushev, Aleksandar 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 90 kg (198 lb) 21 – (2003-05-12)12 May 2003 PG 0 Hristov, Yoan 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) 65 kg (143 lb) 21 – (2003-11-23)23 November 2003 C 99 Vachev, Andon 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 95 kg (209 lb) 21 – (2003-08-17)17 August 2003	Head coach Toni Dechev Assistant coach(es) Aleksandar Aleksiev Strength & conditioning coach(es) Yancho Yanchev Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 23 October 2022

BC Yambol played in FIBA Korać Cup (2000, 2001), FIBA Europe Champions Cup for Men 2003/Conference South and NEBL Open 2001/2002.

1999–2000 FIBA Korać Cup [edit] Round Team  Home   Away  Additional Preliminary Round Karşıyaka Basket 62–54 59–81 [5] 2000–01 FIBA Korać Cup [edit] Round Team  Home   Away  Elimination Round I KK Kumanovo 104–78 82–80 Elimination Round II KK FMP 65–67 62–75 [6]

2002–03 FIBA Europe Champions Cup [edit] Round Team Home  Away  Group Stage (Conference South) Peristeri B.C. 66–72 68–93 Hapoel Jerusalem B.C. 76–70 71–97 KK Vojvodina Srbijagas 97–91 85–72 Karşıyaka Basket 82–69 72–78 KK Rabotnički 85–73 69–75 [7]

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¹During the 2001–02 season, Vitaly Lebedintsev coached 6 regular season games. Lebedintsev was fired in November 2001, and Ivan Cholakov coached the remaining season games.
²During the 2010–11 season, Ivailo Stoimenov coached 7 regular season games. Stoimenov resigned on November 29, 2010, and Ivan Cholakov coached the remaining season games.
³During the 2015–16 season, Ninoslav Marjanovic coached 9 regular season games. Marjanovic resigned on December 5, 2015.
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• Official website
• Eurobasket.com BC Yambol Page