DETROIT (AP) – Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper left Wall Street to be a lawyer, planning to eventually become a sports agent.
To make ends meet as an attorney, he made $1,500 a month to handle cases for financially strapped clients in the middle of Michigan. Cooper’s charm and communication skills helped him cut deals for defendants while quickly processing a lot of people in and out of the state district court.
Then, Cooper got a call in the fall of 1999 from the judge who often saw him do his day job and knew he was a pretty good hockey player.
“I said, ‘Jon, do you want to coach my son’s high school hockey team at Lansing Catholic?'” retired judge Thomas Brennan recalled in a telephone interview Monday. “He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that.’ And, Jon absolutely flourished because you could tell he really enjoyed doing it.”
Cooper progressed to coaching junior hockey, then in the minor leagues, and eventually took over Tampa Bay’s American Hockey League affiliate in Norfolk in 2010. Then, nearly three years ago, the former securities trader and public defender was hired by Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman to lead Tampa Bay.