Valmiera Glass Via (basketball)

Lore & Background

The club was founded in 2009 as the student team of Vidzeme University. It debuted in 2011 in the Latvian Basketball League's Third Division as Vidzemes Augstskola. With Roberts Zeile as player-coach and Sandis Amoliņš on the roster, the team won the division championship in spring 2012 and was promoted to the Second Division. In 2012, Oto Grīnbergs joined and became the team's leading scorer for the next five seasons. In 2014, the team began a partnership with Valmiera Fibreglass and played as Vidzemes Augstskola/Valmiera Glass, also establishing a farm team. In 2016, the football club Valmieras FK and the basketball club were brought together under the organization name SO Valmiera Glass / Vidzemes Augstskola.

Reader's Guide

Valmiera Glass ViA's significance lies in its rapid ascent from a student club to a professional team winning all three available domestic titles in the 2025–26 season. The club's promotion to the Latvian–Estonian Basketball League in 2018 came after the bankruptcy of city rival Valmiera/Ordo, a former Latvian champion. The 2025–26 season marked a historic treble: the Latvian Basketball Cup, the Latvian–Estonian Basketball League championship, and the Latvian Basketball League title. This was the first time in the LBL's 35-year history that the gold-medal series did not involve a Riga club. The team's success was led by head coach Kaspars Vecvagars in his first full season, with key contributions from Lithuanian point guard Dominykas Stenionis and Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, who earned MVP honors in the league final and the LBL final series. The club also maintains a strong bond with the Bertāns Basketball School, and brothers Dairis Bertāns and Dāvis Bertāns joined the club board in summer 2022.

Did You Know?

• The club was originally a student team of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, founded in 2009.
• It was promoted to the Latvian–Estonian Basketball League in 2018 after the bankruptcy of local rival Valmiera/Ordo.
• In the 2025–26 season, Valmiera Glass ViA won the Latvian Basketball Cup, the Latvian–Estonian Basketball League, and the Latvian Basketball League title.
• The 2025–26 LBL gold-medal series was the first in 35 years without a Riga club participating.

From Campus Court to Competitive Club

The club traces its roots to 2009, when it was established as the student basketball team of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences. That academic origin gave the program a grassroots character that would persist even as the roster evolved. The team entered organized competition in 2011, debuting in the Latvian Basketball League's third tier under the name Vidzemes Augstskola. With Roberts Zeile serving as player-coach and Sandis Amoliņš on the roster, the squad captured the division title in the spring of 2012 and earned promotion to the second division. The following year, Oto Grīnbergs arrived and became the offensive engine of the team, holding the leading-scorer title for five consecutive seasons. In 2014, a commercial partnership with Valmiera Fibreglass reshaped the club's identity, adding the Valmiera Glass branding and establishing a reserve squad in the third division. By 2016, the basketball club and the local football side Valmieras FK were unified under a single organizational umbrella, cementing Valmiera Glass ViA as a multi-sport community institution.

The Road to the Top Flight

After years of climbing through the second division, Valmiera Glass ViA reached the 2017 finals, where they fell to BK Jelgava. That near-miss ignited local debate about whether the club was ready for the highest level of Latvian basketball. The following season, the team lost the bronze-medal series to BK Gulbenes Buki and finished fourth, yet an unexpected opportunity opened. The bankruptcy of their city rivals, Valmiera/Ordo, created a vacancy in the newly created Latvian-Estonian Basketball League, and Valmiera Glass ViA was promoted to fill it. Ahead of the 2018-19 campaign, the club bolstered its roster with experienced professionals Jānis Kaufmanis, Edmunds Elksnis, and Māris Ziediņš. The debut season proved challenging: an 8-20 regular-season record placed them twelfth overall and sixth among Latvian entries. Though they missed the combined league playoffs, they still qualified for the domestic LBL postseason, where they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by BK Ogre in a 0-3 series. The experience, however, marked the beginning of the club's presence in top-flight Baltic basketball.

The Historic 2025-26 Triple Crown

The 2025-26 campaign stands as the defining chapter in the club's history. Kaspars Vecvagars guided the team through his first full season as head coach, and the results were extraordinary. In February, Valmiera Glass ViA captured the Latvian Basketball Cup, outscoring BK Ventspils 84-70 in a final played in Ventspils. Lithuanian point guard Dominykas Stenionis earned the final's MVP award with 15 points, six assists, and a steal. Four months later, in April, the club claimed its first Latvian-Estonian Basketball League title, defeating hosts Tartu Ülikool/Maks & Moorits 100-95 in Tartu. Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones was named the game's most valuable player. Then in May, the team completed a domestic treble by winning the Latvian Basketball League championship, beating BK Ventspils 3-1 in the best-of-five final. The clinching fourth game was won 92-89 on the road. Tait-Jones was crowned series MVP. Notably, this was the first time in the LBL's 35-year history that the gold-medal series featured no Riga-based club.

Community Roots and Institutional Identity

Valmiera Glass ViA has always been defined by its deep ties to the city of Valmiera and its local institutions. The club was born from the student program at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, and that academic foundation shaped its early identity. The 2016 merger of the basketball club with football side Valmieras FK under a shared organizational name reinforced the perception of a unified Valmiera sports brand. The club also maintains a strong connection to the Bertāns brothers, Dairis and Dāvis, prominent Latvian national team players who joined the club's board in the summer of 2022. Their involvement is intertwined with the Bertāns Basketball School in Valmiera, which serves as a developmental pipeline for young players. From the early days of a university student squad competing in the third division to a team now contesting in the European North Basketball League since 2021, the club's trajectory reflects a small Latvian city's ambition to compete at the highest levels of Baltic basketball. The 2025-26 treble confirmed that ambition had become reality.