BATON ROUGE - The Baton Rouge Hockey Club announced the new franchise's first head coach.

Jimmy Soper previously served as captain of the Knoxville Ice Bears of the SPHL, where he helped lead the organization back to the President's Cup Finals for the first time since 2015 during the 2024-25 season. He is a first-time hockey coach, having played for nine seasons prior.

"We are thrilled to welcome Jimmy Soper to Baton Rouge," said Andreas Johansson, a member of the organization’s ownership group. "Jimmy embodies exactly what we envisioned when building this franchise from the ground up: a competitor, a leader, and someone who will represent this community with pride. Baton Rouge deserves a team built the right way, and Jimmy is the right person to build it."

The team also announced season tickets will be available on Wednesday, July 22. The new team name is also set to be revealed that day.