2011-12 Team Preview: BC Rilski Sportist

BC Rilski Sportist is the first ever EUROHOLD Balkan League champion - in 2009 they won the BIBL in front of their own fans in Arena Samokov. Rileco are the only team that has two sets of medals from the competition - the gold from 2009 and silver from 2011.
 
Rilski Sportist′s most recent succes is exactly the silver medal from the Balkan League. Also in 2011 they finished third in the Cup of Bulgaria, and in 2009 they took the silver medals.
 
It can fairly be said, that Rilski is definitely in rebuilding mode. The team was left by two of their best players from last season - the top scorer Ivan Lilov and the former team captain Aleksandar Gruev. However the team added a couple of new players. Starting with guard Branko Mirkovic, who was part of the 2009 championship team, that won the BIBL, going through Bulgaria NT guard Asen Velikov, and finishing with one of the best prospects in Bulgaria in the last years Hristo Zahariev. Also there are two new foreign additions - Ante Bilobrk (Croatia) and Filip Vukosavljevic (Serbia).
 
From last season′s team, the most notable names that remained on the roster are Dragomir Marojevic, Atanas Radev, Bogdan Boev and Martin Marinov.
 
Rosen Barchovski remains head coach of the team, as the only change in the staff is the signing of young assistant coach Vasil Hristov, after Bozhidar Gyorev left to join MZT Skopje.
 
Rilski is in Group A of the 2011/2012 EUROHOLD Balkan League, along with the teams of BC Galil Gilboa (Israel), KK Torus - SC Boris Trajkovski (Macedonia), KK Mornar Bar (Montenegro), BC Timisoara (Romania) and OKK Beograd (Serbia).