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Cooper, Kleinedorst to Serve as Camp Assistant Coaches

By USAHockey.com, 07/26/13, 9:00AM EDT

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Jon Cooper (Tampa, Fla.) and Kurt Kleinendorst (Grand Rapids, Minn.) will serve as assistant camp coaches at the U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp.

Cooper is the head coach of the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning, a position he was promoted to midway through the 2012-13 campaign. Previously, he was head coach of the Lightning’s top American Hockey League affiliates in Syracuse (2012-13) and Norfolk (2010-12). He led the Norfolk Admirals to the 2012 Calder Cup Championship. Cooper also spent two seasons (2008-10) as head coach of the United States Hockey League’s Green Bay Gamblers. The Gamblers won the 2010 Clark Cup Championship and Cooper received the General Manager and Coach of the Year Awards. In five seasons (2003-08) with the North American Hockey League's St. Louis Bandits, Cooper led the team to the 2007 and 2008 Robertson Cup Championship and was the NAHL Coach of the Year in the 2005-06 and 2007-08 seasons.

Kleinendorst was named head coach of the AHL's Iowa Wild on July 22, 2013. For USA Hockey, he was head coach of the National Team Development Program's Under-18 Team during the 2009-10 campaign. He led Team USA to the gold medal at the 2010 IIHF Men’s Under-18 World Championship. In 2008, he was an assistant coach for the U.S. Men's National Team. He was head coach of the University of Alabama-Huntsville men’s ice hockey team for the 2012-13 season. Previously in the AHL, he was head coach of the Binghamton Senators from 2010-12 and the Lowell Devils from 2006-09. He coached the ECHL’s Raleigh IceCaps from 1991-94 and 1995-97. For the NHL's New Jersey Devils, Kleinendorst was an assistant coach (2000-01), professional scout (2001-02) and special assistant scout (2002-06).

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