The Billy Martin of Burlington hockey
Those of a certain vintage will recall the story of how Roger Neilson was fired as Toronto Maple Leafs’ coach back in 1978 only to be rehired a couple days later. At which point Harold Ballard, the team’s preposterous owner, demanded he milk the publicity generated by the entire gong show by having his new-old bench boss show up for his first game with a paper bag on his head.
He didn’t. Which was a sad day for wacky marketing. But opens the door to a massive opportunity four decades later.
When Mark Jooris returns to the bench on Friday as head coach of the Burlington Cougars roughly a year after he was relieved of those same duties — and less than a decade after he was fired yet another time only to eventually be rehired — could he please, please wear a bag?
“I’m not doing the bag,” the 54-year-old laughs. “I just got my hair cut.”
Fair enough. Junior hockey’s answer to Billy Martin doesn’t need gimmicks. Even fun ones. Not with his track record.
When he was first hired by the Cougars back in 2009, the Ontario Junior Hockey League team was coming off a good season. Yet under him they jumped to first place. The year he left, they won 19 fewer games.
Jooris returned in 2015 and took over a last-place squad. It immediately exploded from 24 points to 71 leading to the league’s coach of the year award. The next season he led the team up a bit more to 83 points and another coach of the year nomination. Which plummeted to 44 points last year once he was let go.
Which means the question on the tip of your tongue is not only obvious but fair. If was so good, why was he let go those two times?
“There were some differences with philosophies,” he explains.
He doesn’t care to elaborate. Who was involved and what the issues were shall remain his secret.
It’s water under the bridge now, he says. So when newlyhired coach Chad Wiseman got a job with the OHL’s Guelph Storm this summer before coaching a
single game and the Cougars needed a replacement on short order, Jooris and general manager Alex Bezerra — who’d been on the bench with him last time he was running things before being bumped up to GM — had a chat. Within hours he’d been hired and the next morning he was on the ice running training camp.
But if philosophies were the sticking point before, whose philosophy has changed?
“It’s not mine,” he says. “I’m sticking to what I believe in.”
Mostly.
“I guess I just have to pick my spots better and not be so stubborn,” he continues. “Maybe not dig my heels in so much and talk things out a little more.”
This is the new, slightly Dr. Phil-ized version of Mark Jooris. A little softer, a little more accommodating, a little more flexible. But no less competitive and certainly no less passionate.
The longtime European star who became the Dundas Real McCoys’ all-time leader in basically every statistical category except penalty minutes and goals against average still has things to do in the game. He wants to coach in the OHL or higher. A good season this year — which would mean three significant improvements by his teams in three separate coaching stints — would surely do the trick.
“If I can turn this around again, someone has to take notice, you’d think,” he says.
Yes, you would definitely think.
But that’s not the only thing on his plate. He’s also got a son who’s about to open training camp with the Toronto Maple Leafs who’s looking for a spot on a team
that some are thinking could be the group to — gasp! — end the 50-plus-year Stanley Cup drought. That’s going to be a little on his mind.
Actually, it’s more than a slight diversion. He’s already checked the Leafs’ and Cougars’ calendars to see how often their games overlap. Hint: It happens more than a few times.
“God bless the PVR,” he says.
So if Josh makes the team and things start going well and there’s a Burlington game but he has tickets in Toronto, what then?
Jooris laughs.
“That’s why I’ve got good assistant coaches.”