Photo credit: RocketFAN

By Regan Bartel

Miles of Trust

He carried the Rockets: Remembering Roger von Dach (1942-2024)

Dec 31, 2025 | 6:00 AM

As 2025 comes to a close, we wanted to pause and remember one of the people who helped carry the Kelowna Rockets for three decades – often through the night, often without applause.

When the Kelowna Rockets arrived from Tacoma for the start of the 1995–96 season, they were a new franchise in a new city, trying to establish trust on the ice and everywhere else.

Roger von Dach earned that trust with a handshake.

Von Dach, who passed away in June of 2024 at the age of 82, was the Rockets’ director of transportation from the very beginning in Kelowna. For 14 straight seasons, and many more in a reduced role, he was the man behind the wheel responsible for safely carrying generations of young players across the vast geography of the Western Hockey League.

In an interview conducted by RocketFAN a few years ago, von Dach traced it all back to a phone call.

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“A friend of mine gave me a number and said, ‘There’s a new hockey team coming to town, and they need transportation,’” von Dach recalled. “So I called, met with Bruce Hamilton and Gavin, and after a short conversation, they wanted to come see the buses. They liked what they saw. We shook hands, and that was basically the contract.”

It was simple. And it lasted.

From the Rockets’ first season in Kelowna onward, von Dach became a constant in an organization defined by change. Players cycled through every year. Coaches came and went. Miles piled up.

Von Dach stayed.

“I did 14 seasons straight,” he said. “In the beginning, my brother and I switched back and forth. After that, I did all the driving until about four years before I stepped back a bit.”

The numbers tell part of the story. The Rockets logged roughly 50,000 kilometres per season. Over his career, von Dach estimated he drove between 2.5 and 3 million kilometres through mountain passes, Prairie highways, winter storms, and long overnight hauls when the rest of the bus slept.

Or tried to.

“If everybody’s asleep, I think the bus feels empty,” he joked. “The only time I really notice the weight is going uphill. I know I go faster when it’s empty.”

Night driving was part of the job, often with movies playing behind him.

“I don’t even want to know how many movies I’ve heard but never seen,” he said with a laugh. “Sometimes you hear everybody laughing, and I’m thinking, ‘What’s supposed to be funny here?’ My taste of humour isn’t the same as 20-year-old guys.”

What never changed was how seriously he took the responsibility.

“When you’ve got kids on that bus, your job is to get them there and get them home,” von Dach said. “Nothing else matters.”

He understood exactly what was riding behind him not just players, but families, futures, and trust.

“Yes, it’s a responsibility,” he said. “On one side, it’s a burden. On the other side, you sort of turn it off while you’re driving because you’ve got enough other things to worry about.”

Those worries included some of the most challenging driving conditions in junior hockey. The Coquihalla, winter snow, fog, freezing rain.

“Snow on the road doesn’t really bother me,” he explained. “Snow coming down is different. It depends which way it’s coming. Fog, if it’s heavy enough, you slow down. But the worst thing is freezing rain.”

Despite millions of kilometres, incidents were rare.

“I hit one deer coming back from Prince George, just north of Williams Lake,” he said matter of factly. “But no crashes. No dents. Nothing.”

Von Dach took pride in the machine, too. Driving a team bus, he said, was easier than people thought if you respected its size and limits.

“The mirrors tell you everything,” he said. “If the mirrors go by, the rest of the bus goes by. And it does not bend like a semi, so you never worry about the back end passing you.”

Beyond the roads, von Dach cherished the people. In the early years, owner Bruce Hamilton travelled often with the team. Relationships were built mile by mile.

“It was a lot of fun knowing everybody by name,” von Dach said. “Every year, a few guys leave, a few come in. That’s how it goes.”

Even broadcasters left their mark. He remembered Rick Ball, the Rockets’ first play by play voice in Kelowna, and a catchphrase that players loved enough to repeat it all trip long.

When von Dach eventually stepped back, he helped guide his successor, Mel Billings, into the role.

“We have been friends for years,” he said. “I told him, ‘Why do not you try this?’ It was not new to him, and I knew he would be good.”

Asked whether bus drivers get enough credit in the WHL, von Dach did not complain.

“I think the teams appreciate what we do,” he said simply.

They did. They still do.

Roger von Dach was born May 11, 1942, in Zurich, Switzerland, and built a life defined by reliability, pride, and care for others. He is survived by his wife, Elna, and their son Martin.

Roger von Dach never wore a jersey, never stood behind a bench, never showed up on a scoresheet. But for three decades of Kelowna Rockets hockey, no one logged more quiet miles for the crest than the man at the front of the bus.

He did not just drive the Rockets.

He carried them.