By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Former star pitcher Jordan Cooper has become a star multi-tasker over the past few years.
After ending his nine-year professional pitching career, the former Shawnee Heights All-Stater and Wichita State All-American turned his focus on his future, earning his bachelor's degree through Kansas State and then serving as Washburn University's pitching coach while beginning work on his law degree at WU.
All of this while Jordan and his wife, Camri, began building a family that includes four children between seven months and five years old.
All the late night studying, long roadtrips, diaper duty and the like paid a big dividend on Friday when Cooper earned his Juris Doctor law degree from Washburn in a Lee Arena graduation ceremony.
"I was excited for my family and I was excited for me and my wife to finally be done with kind of grinding to get through law school,'' Cooper said. "We made some sacrifices family-wise to get that done, so I was definitely proud of that.''
Washburn University pitching coach Jordan Cooper, a former star at Shawnee Heights and Wichita State, poses with wife Camri and the couple's four children after Cooper received his Juris Doctor degree from Washburn last Friday. [Twitter]
Like most young athletes, Cooper had another plan in mind for his future when he left Wichita State after being drafted in the ninth round of the MLB Draft by the Cleveland Indians.
"I had hoped to play in the big leagues and not have to worry about it,'' said Cooper, who was drafted in the 17th round out of high school by the Boston Red Sox.
That didn't quite work out, although Cooper reached the AAA level, and he eventually decided to follow his father, Jeff, into law while also being able to stay active in baseball as WU's pitching coach the past three seasons.
"I also thought long and hard about coaching as a career, but I just wanted to be home and be in Topeka,'' Cooper said. "I had been off running around long enough and wanted to come home to help my kids grow and coach their summer teams and just be at home more.
"My dad is an attorney here in Topeka so that was kind of the guide for that. He runs his own law office so I wanted to help him. He's been a big influence on my life, so I kind of wanted to follow in his footsteps and then also at some point leave the door open to still stay in the game some and maybe be involved as a player agent/representation at some point, too.''
Jordan's decision to try to earn his law degree coincided with he and Camri's quickly growing family.
The Cooper's oldest daughter, Blakely, is 5 years old, while son Coy will turn 3 in February and twins Bowie (daughter) and Cash (son) are seven months old.
"I wouldn't recommend having three of them right in the middle of law school, that's for sure,'' Cooper said with a laugh. "We found out we were having what we thought was our third and were joking and my wife was like, 'I wouldn't mind having twins and then be done with having kids,' '' Cooper said.
"And then we were like, 'Nah, nevermind. Double diapers, double feeding, double everything.' The next day we went to the doctor's office and they were like, 'Surprise!' ''
Cooper admits that managing everything has been a challenge, but he credits his family as well as his Washburn baseball family for helping make everything work.
"The first years were the hardest because you're trying to juggle everything and you're trying to learn how they want you to learn, write how they want you to write,'' said Cooper. "My wife (who played volleyball at Arizona State and Wichita State) was an all-star. She helped out so much with all the kids and when I needed to study for a few hours at night I could do that.''
Cooper also credits his mother, Geni, and in-laws for being a big help as well as Washburn baseball coach Harley Douglas and the Ichabod team.
"If I had classes in the afternoon that I would miss practice for or if I needed to stay home with the kids on a weekend or take a test or whatever and then drive down and meet them later then I would do that,'' Cooper said. "They were really flexible working with me.''
Cooper is currently working part-time in his father's law office and plans to take the bar exam in February.
And no matter what his future endeavors old, Cooper said that sports will always continue to have a place in his life.
"That will never leave,'' he said. "That's something I love being a part of.''
