A few days before the New Year, a Russian missile killed the legendary Ukrainian basketball player, international master of sports of Ukraine and well-known coach Viktor Kobzysty.
He was born on March 7, 1979, in Kremenchuk, Poltava region. After school, he went to study to become a primary school teacher at the Kremenchuk Anton Makarenko Humanitarian and Technological Academy. But Viktor did not want to become a teacher, he dreamed of a sports career. To do this, he combined his studies with trainings. He tried football and hockey, but had to give it up because of his height. Instead, he chose basketball, where he had shown talent for early in his career. His coach Anatolii Ivakiv recalls that at the age of 15, the young basketball player was a member of the masters team. He could do everything. And he immediately received the title of candidate for master of sports. He also became the best basketball player in Ukraine among boys aged 17. Viktor Kobzysty played 11 matches for the national team of Ukraine, represented our country at two European Championships – 2001 and 2005, and participated in two Universiades – 2003 and 2005.
At the club level, he played for «Naftokhimik» (Kremenchuk), «CSKA Rico» (Kyiv), «Azovmash» (Mariupol), «Dnipro» and «Budivelnyk» (Kyiv). In 2010, he became a silver medalist of the national championship, and in 2011 – a champion, as a member of the Kyiv team. In the same year, Viktor finished his sports career and started coaching. He was actively involved in the development of Ukrainian basketball. From 2015 to 2020, he was the president of BC «Kremin» and the headmaster of a children’s and youth sports school in Kremenchuk. The teams he coached won the Ukrainian championship twice, the Ukrainian Cup and the Super League Cup. His friends and acquaintances say that he could have built a successful coaching career outside of Ukraine, but he chose his home and the path of rebuilding national sports.
In 2021, Viktor moved to Lviv, where he worked in basketball sphere. In autumn of 2023, he returned to coaching, heading the women’s Super League basketball club «Dynamo» from Kyiv.
How much more could Viktor have done for Ukrainian basketball, how many more talents he could have discovered if the war had not started. On December 29, 2023, when the Christmas mood reigned throughout the world and everyone was waiting for the New Year 2024 to come, Russian troops launched a massive air strike on Ukraine with kamikaze drones and missiles. More than 150 aerial targets were launched at various cities.Unfortunately, as a result of that terrorist attack, 44-year-old Viktor Kobzysty died in Lviv. The Russians left two sons without a father, hundreds of young Ukrainian basketball players without a coach…