BC Tarvas is 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.
Rakvere Tarvas was founded in 2006 by Andres Sõber and joined the top-tier Korvpalli Meistriliiga (KML) for the 2006âÂÂ07 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 2006âÂÂ07 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 2009âÂÂ10 regular season in second place and reached the finals in the playoffs. In the finals, Rakvere Tarvas faced the top-seeded TÃÂ/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 2010âÂÂ11 season, finishing in fourth place. Rakvere Tarvas also joined the Baltic Basketball League for the 2010âÂÂ11 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 Sirsnià Âà ¡ and Juris Umbraà ¡ko. In response, some Rakvere Tarvas fans started showing their support by attending games wearing Latvian national team uniforms. Rakvere Tarvas finished the 2011âÂÂ12 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 81âÂÂ64. The team came third in the 2012âÂÂ13 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 Umbraà ¡ko were named to the All-KML Team. Rakvere Tarvas competed in the 2013âÂÂ14 EuroChallenge but failed to advance past the group stage with a 1âÂÂ5 record. The team finished the 2013âÂÂ14 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 2016âÂÂ17 season.
For the 2017âÂÂ18 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.