Bulgarian import Vassil Stoimenov living the American dream at Atlantic Christian School

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher The basketball coach would wait patiently on the sidelines of the soccer field at the elementary school in Sofia, Bulgaria. She would watch practice, and each day when practice was over she would try to convince young Vassil Stoimenov to come join her basketball team. Eventually, Stoimenov figured maybe this woman saw something in him. But mostly he gave in to her suggestion because, well, she was a nice lady. “She kept insisting that I play,” Stoimenov said. “She would call me, come to the soccer field to watch me practice and wait for me to get done. I thought that was really cool. You can’t really say no to that.” Six years later and many thousands of miles from home, Stoimenov, an 18-year-old senior, is one of the most talented high school basketball players that nobody in South Jersey has heard of. The 6-foot-6 forward with the sweet left-handed touch and engaging smile toiled this season in relative basketball anonymity while playing at Atlantic Christian School in Egg Harbor Township. Vassil Stoimenov, an 18-year-old senior at Atlantic Christian School, came to the United States from Bulgaria as a 16-year-old after playing both soccer and basketball as a youngster in his home country. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) But the gregarious Bulgarian import has become the biggest star at ACS, not just because he can dominate on the basketball court, but also because of his infectious personality. Before a game against Highland in late February, a group of parents eagerly snapped photos of their youth cheerleaders, who were on stage joining the high school cheerleaders getting the crowd pumped up before the junior varsity game. Stoimenov bolted to the stage and lay down in front of all the cheerleaders, hamming it up for the cameras and drawing a chorus of laughs from the parents. That’s just the kind of guy Stoimenov is. As a young boy, the son of doctors Ivan and Lucy Stoimenov, he dreamed of living in the United States, of living the life he saw on television. And now that he is here in America, he’s intent on soaking up every minute of the experience. “(My life) has changed dramatically. The people here are great. My teachers are super nice and I think I’ve become a better person by living here,” Stoimenov said. “It’s been like a fairytale for me. Growing up my dream was to come to the States, as far back as I remember. Just watching all the American movies and cartoons and stuff.” “It’s been great to watch him grow and become more accustomed to being in America and form relationships with people here. He’s gotten better, not only with basketball, but with school and everything else,” said Cougars coach Drew Carney. “He’s got one of those personalities that everyone is drawn to and they want to be around him. People want to talk to him.” Stoimenov actually began to learn English by watching cartoons such as “Courage the Cowardly Dog” and “Johnny Bravo” when he was a young boy. “I watched the Cartoon Network all the time growing up and I think that’s the biggest factor in me learning English,” Stoimenov said. “My parents understand it well but they have trouble speaking it. I did learn some English in school, but it was hard. I would mess up with the smallest thing, just being nervous. Around this time of the year last year is when I started to really improve speaking English.” Stoimenov may not have totally mastered English yet, but his skills on the basketball court translate in any language. He has the body of a forward but handles the ball like a guard, and has an array of skills that show the influence the European game has had on him. He’s not a bruiser down low, much more of a finesse player. When he posts up he’s not looking to drive his shoulder down and go to the backboard. Instead, he’s much more comfortable spinning and hitting a soft, step-back jumper a-la Vlade Divac. Stoimenov said he tries to pattern his game after European stars in the NBA, but also said he enjoys the improvisation that American players bring to the game. And despite his ability to score, and score often, he naturally is more of a distributor, sometimes to the detriment of his own statistics. “I like to view myself as a guard because I really like passing,” Stoimenov said. “That’s really what I enjoy about playing basketball is distributing the ball, and I’m kind of a bossy person so I like to say ‘OK you go here, you go here.'” Carney said the most difficult thing for him this season was getting Stoimenov to pass less and shoot more, to use his polished ball-handling skills and post-up moves to take over games when the situation called for it. “He’s always been very talented, but he’s kind of a passive person. Last year, I graduated six seniors, so this year we’ve really been on him to be a leader, not only verbally but on the court he has to be more aggressive,” Carney said. “He can’t always look to pass and set other people up, he has to be aggressive to get his own buckets. It took him a little while to adjust but in the second half of the year he’s really done a much better job of that. I don’t think he really knew how strong and quick he is until he started being aggressive. Now he realizes he can post up and push other guys around.” “I think I have progressed. I think I’ve become a little more physical. I spent a lot of time in the weight room and that has really helped me out a lot,” Stoimenov said. “That, combined with footwork, is a pretty decent combination. Coach tells me I should be more aggressive and decisive. What comes to me naturally is to distribute.” Said sophomore point guard Vince Davis, “He’s a great player. He’s a big, but he can also handle the ball. He’s a real team player. He does anything to win.” Atlantic Christian doesn’t get a whole lot of respect around South Jersey because the league the Cougars play in isn’t on par with the Cape-Atlantic League, but they have shown the ability to compete with some of the better teams in the area. “We went out and beat Middle Township (in early February). Usually people underestimate us a lot,” Stoimenov said. Although the European influence is easy to see in his game, Stoimenov said he really enjoys the American style and the improvisation that is so common in the brand of basketball played on this side of the Atlantic. “(In Europe) it’s like a chess game. Everyone is like a pawn. You never go out of the play,” Stoimenov said. “But here, we have plays and sets but if I want to take a shot or take the ball to the hole in the middle of the play the coach won’t get mad. I like improvisation.” The assimilation into the Atlantic Christian basketball program and school community wasn’t easy for Stoimenov. He came to America during his sophomore year, right before the basketball season started. He nearly missed his connecting flight in London, and three days after he landed in New Jersey the Cougars were playing their first game. Not only that, he was a 16-year-old living abroad on his own for the first time, and being away from his parents and younger brother Alexander was a tough transition. “The toughest part was the beginning, the first few months. But I get to see their faces on Skype, which is cool,” Stoimenov said. “When we got hit by that derecho we lost power for seven or eight days and I wasn’t able to see them, and I was like, I miss them. I haven’t seen them. But the environment here has helped me. My host family took me in as a son.” “At first it took (the players)
a little bit of time to adjust because you have a kid coming from overseas, but his personality is that which, within maybe a week or two, everybody started becoming friends with him,” Carney said. “It’s been a great experience (for the players). They can ask him things about his hometown and how he grew up, did he have things like Facebook and all the things that kids have become so accustomed to having, so that’s pretty cool.” Davis, a 16-year-old Egg Harbor Township resident, said it didn’t take long for Stoimenov to endear himself to his teammates. “He’s a good kid. He tries to help people out. He does stuff in his spare time to try to help give back to the community,” Davis said. “He’s usually focused on bus rides (to games), but off the court he’s a funny kid.” Like a lot of young foreign athletes, Stoimenov idolizes professional American players and he and his brother, who is in middle school and also is a budding basketball prodigy, try to pattern their games after some of the best players in the NBA. “Right now my favorite player is Manu (Ginobili), but I definitely look up to the American players. There’s no question they are the best players in the world,” Stoimenov said. “My brother is a great example. Last summer he said, ‘man, I’m really into Allen Iverson. His crossover is so cool.’ So he would take the ball, put (Iverson’s moves) on his phone and go out and practice that all day. He would do that for a week and then pick another player. He would do that Jamal Crawford finish with that behind-the-back.” As much as the American culture and lifestyle has had an effect on Stoimenov, perhaps he is having an equally strong impact on those around him in Egg Harbor Township. His friends have even taken a liking to some of his music from back home. “They like the Bulgarian rap, especially the guys I live with, my host brothers. I walk into the house and there is my language bumping out of the speakers. That’s pretty cool,” Stoimenov said. There’s no telling what the future holds for Stoimenov. He says he would love to go to college in America and continue his basketball career. But no matter what happens, Carney said that Stoimenov has his priorities in order. “He’s keeping his options open. As good as he is at basketball he’s more focused on getting a good education and setting himself up for the rest of his life,” Carney said. “He realizes that at some point basketball isn’t going to be something he can do forever, so he really wants to go to a good school where he can get a degree and set himself up beyond basketball.” Whatever happens, Stoimenov said he has thoroughly enjoyed his time in the United States. “I love it. I want to live here. The whole culture is different,” Stoimenov said. “I’m going to miss (Atlantic Christian) a lot. That’s why I’m trying to get the most out of it.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]