Career
After retiring he became a coach, and is currently working as a head coach for BK Liepājas Lauvas. Experienced and powerful, Helmanis has been a key player for the National Team since the nineties. Some coaches were trying to put this 2.04 m player under the basket but his style tends to draw him away from the hoop.
Helmanis can use his big body in the paint, especially on defense, but his most effective weapon is his ability to knock down the three-point shot.
He doesn’t look very quick, but he is adept at getting himself open from behind the three-point line. After four good years at Bamberg, Helmanis came back to Latvia and celebrated his homecoming with "eternal" national champs BK Ventspils and showed all his best assets in the Baltic league and in ULEB Cup games.
In the summer of 2009 Helmanis became the first Latvian to play in six EuroBaskets. After winning the Latvian Championship with Barons LMT in 2010 he retired as a player and became a head coach of the team
After unsuccessful results he was fired in midseason and went to Poland to work for the assistant of Dainius Adomaitis, head coach of Czarni Słupsk.
After one season Uvis came back to Latvia and joined a coach room of British Columbia VEF Rīga, becoming an assistant of head coach Ramunas Butautas. He became head coach of BK Liepājas Lauvas in 2013.