Capt. Eric Lee Romines is an “aquaphile.” His volunteer spirit work and his lifelong hobby are both water related. It’s a good bet that many water lovers have never heard the word aquaphile. Here’s the best definition we found: The word comes from the Latin words “aqua,” meaning water, and “phile,” meaning love of. An aquaphile is someone who enjoys everything related to water, including being in, on or by the water.

This aquaphile’s love of all things connected to water and fishing began in 1993. He was 11 when his mother, Darlene, one day dropped him off at the Fountain City Duck Pond. That was his first time to bait a hook and hope for a strike. The pond was his go-to fishing hole for several years and eventually he landed a 6-pound largemouth bass.

Today, this 42-year-old, reared in Halls, is captain of the Knox County Rescue’s (KCR) Water Rescue Search & Recovery Dive Team and its 25 members. He’s entering his 18th year as a KCR volunteer with additional certifications and expertise in the areas of heavy rescue, confined space, trench rescue and advanced extractions. KCR also has a swiftwater rescue specialty team that he directs.

In addition to his full-time job at Brauer Material Handling Systems, he is one of KCR’s hardest-working volunteers. Plaques that hang at KCR headquarters on Chilhowee Drive honor his service:

  • Outstanding Special Services Member of the Year – 2023
  • KCR Member of the Year – 2008
  • Charlie Sparks Service Award for Volunteering 3,852 Hours – 2008
  • Charlie Sparks Service Award for Volunteering 3,835 Hours – 2009
  • Charlie Sparks Service Award for Volunteering 2,216 Hours – 2010

    Capt. Eric Lee Romines

KCR Deputy Chief John Jones heaps praise on Romines. “Eric has been an integral part of KCR for many years, a skilled rescue technician whose dedication and expertise have shaped him into an exceptional leader. His years of service have made him the backbone of our water team, and I’m proud to have Captain Romines leading us forward with strength, knowledge and unwavering commitment.”

Many organizations would love to have volunteers logging those hours. We asked why he loves the KCR and this work so. “I really do not have a good answer for it. I just enjoy doing it for the community. I’ve always been a person with a big heart and I do whatever I can to help somebody, to save someone, to find and rescue someone, to get someone out of a burning car in a bad accident. It’s just who I am.”

This aquaphile is KnoxTNToday’s first “Our Town Hero” of 2025 for his years of service at KCR, his dedication and volunteer spirit.

And when he’s not at work or doing his thing at KCR, you can probably find him on the water in his 20-foot bass boat fishing any and everywhere around East Tennessee. His days of catching largemouth bass in Fountain City led to him fishing for them still today – for fun and in bass tournaments. He’s won a number of largemouth bass fishing tournaments through the years. He has also won a number of kayak fishing tournaments.

This weekend approaching will find him at the year’s first Bass Nation Affiliate Club Tournament on Chickamauga Lake, which runs for 58 miles through five ET counties – Hamilton, Rhea, Meigs, McMinn and Bradley.

Capt. Eric Romines and wife Holly celebrate with their tournament-winning largemouth bass lunkers on Watts Bar in 2024

Romines and his wife, Holly, are Maryville residents and she also fishes in tournaments with him. Her full-time job is also water related – she is the office manager at Ultra Marine off Topside Road in Alcoa, a Platinum Plus service dealer for Mercury boats. They also have teamed to win a few tournaments in the past two years and enjoy recreational boating on the weekends.

The Romines’ name was well known in Halls. He graduated from Halls High School in 2001. The family was big in the dirt track auto racing world. His father, Ronnie, Uncle Kenny and cousins Freddy and Marvin turned many dirt track curves at area speedways like 411 in Maryville, Atomic Speedway and Smoky Mountain Raceway in Greenback.

He was recently on the KCR team that worked for three days in upper East Tennessee and North Carolina after Hurricane Helene barreled through, destroying most everything in its path.

“I’ve worked at places after horrible tornadoes, but I have never seen devastation like this in my life. You don’t ever forget seeing what we saw. It is amazing what the forces of water and wind can do. Huge lengths of railroad tracks and rail were picked up and moved. Gigantic boulders were tossed around and relocated. Homes gone, wiped out. Huge mudslides down the mountains and hills you could see. Cars and trucks mangled under bridges and people still in shock.”

Romines is planning monthly weekend training sessions for his water team in 2025 in these areas – dive patterns for search and recovery, sonar, tender and rope training, rope signals, swiftwater techniques and safety precautions. “Rescue diving is very dangerous work and we’re working in some new divers this year and there’s no second guessing in this work. What we do has to become second nature,” he explained.

During search and rescue missions Eric mans the sonar equipment and is known as “The Sonar Guy.” The team’s other equipment includes two swiftwater rescue boats, two Zodiac rafts, a 26-foot lake assault boat with hydraulic diving platforms, two rescue flat-bottom connector boats with small dive platforms and all of the necessary diving equipment.

“This is maybe the best dive team in East Tennessee with the experience and expertise these guys have,” Romines said. “Everyone has their own niche on the team. They’ve been well trained and know their stuff, no matter what we’re doing.”

Thank goodness for aquaphiles!

If you are interested in joining and becoming a volunteer member of KCR, click on this LINK www.knoxcountyrescue.com and scroll to the top of the page to the “Join Us” button. You can find an application there plus information about the Youth Cadet program and to also donate to the KCR.

Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email him at the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562.

Our Town Hero is sponsored by Aubrey’s Restaurants.