“I always thought I would get into coaching when I got done,” Cooke said by phone. “But I didn’t think that I would get into coaching high school in Minnesota. I benefitted from good coaching growing up and it’s something that I wanted to pass on.”
His opportunity came last year when his golfing buddy and former Wild forward Mark Parrish become the head coach at Orono. Cooke inquired about a position and even though Parrish’s staff was full, he made room for the 16-year NHL veteran.
In the beginning, even Cooke wasn’t sure what he could offer or how much time he could commit, but Parrish was willing to take him in any way he could. Now going into their second season, the two are much more than just golfing buddies. Like a good linemate, they manage to play to each other’s strengths, just like they would on the ice.
“We have great communication. He coaches the offensive side and I do the defensive side,” Cooke says as he recalls one practice in particular in which Parrish was having trouble explaining (Cooke’s specialty) defensive zone coverage.
“He takes the pen and just hands it to me and says, ‘OK, that’s why I didn’t play defense and that’s why you should be describing this drill.’ And so I took over and it was kind of a fun moment for us.”
As a coach, Cooke does a lot of teaching and laughing – a far cry from the tough guy persona he exuded during the early portion of his playing career. It wasn’t until his second to last suspension in Pittsburgh that he really decided to make a change to who he was as a hockey player. Cooke estimates he watched between 60 and 70 hours of film to try and transform who he was on the ice and re-evaluate how he made split-second decisions. It was that transformation that helped shape him into the coach he is today.
“I get a lot of enjoyment out of kids who want to get better,” Cooke says. “So If I tell you something and you work on it to make a change, when that change happens I want to celebrate that with you.”
The retirement life seems to suit Cooke well, although he rarely sits still. Even as we spoke for this article, he was at a baseball field in Las Vegas watching his youngest child play in a travel league tournament. His oldest daughter is engaged, his middle daughter is a standout soccer player and his son is traveling the country playing baseball – with his parents in tow. Cooke laughs at the notion that he is a “super dad” as Mark Parrish proclaimed, but he makes no effort to hide that his family is his No. 1 priority with hockey a close second. While he does hope that his coaching career grows into more someday, right now being a father is happily his No. 1 job.
“There is part of me that wants to be home,” he says. “And coaching doesn’t allow you to do that. Coaching is more of a commitment than playing and I understand and respect that. So until I can make that commitment or I am ready to make that commitment, there is no real interest in me trying to join different levels of coach. “
At the high school level, Cooke and Parrish’s Orono team made great progress last season. They finished 16-9-1 and made it to the section finals before being knocked out by Delano. The season was a good learning experience for both the players and their coaches and they look forward to seeing if what they learned will lead to success. For Cooke the player, seeing results from teaching came easily, but on the coaching side it’s clearly become much more enjoyable.
