Get to know your Knoxville Ice Bears: Billy Roche

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - As the Ice Bears continue to defend Knoxville’s hockey pride, WVLT is sitting down with eight Ice Bears you should get to know! Today, WVLT’s John Sartori is sitting down with Billy Roche.

John Sartori: 25th season of Knoxville Ice Bears hockey. You were here for a little bit last year. How cool is it to be a part of such a historic season for a team that has been here for such a long time?

Billy Roche: It’s awesome. I think it was touched on earlier. Like, they have the most championships in the league, and that’s a testament to our ownership and down.

And then the players, like, the culture that I kind of walked into last year was awesome. And shout out Jimmy Sober. I think when we were playing them, and when I was on Roanoke and playing against them, I’m like, oh, that’s... I think that’s a team that I want to play for.

Like, they all played hard, and you could tell everyone was bought into Jimmy, and he was a good leader. So I really liked walking into the culture that was here last year. John Sartori: You guys did not have much success in Roanoke against this team.

Billy Roche: Yes.

Summary of the outlet's own feed. From WVLT (Knoxville), October 28, 2026.