Jon Cooper is the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the best hockey team in the world. So good, in fact, they've won back to back National Hockey League Stanley Cup championships.

The top of the hockey mountain might seem like a long way from Texarkana, Texas. But Jon Cooper remembers. He remembers back in 2003 leaving a thriving law practice to head an amateur hockey franchise in that city. He remembers the hard work and the long hours and all the people he met who loved the game a much as he.

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Who was Kim Cannon?

And one of those was a young woman from Jefferson, Texas named Kim Cannon.

Cannon was, as anyone who knew her will attest, one of a kind. Kim, as The Hockey News once wrote, "was one of those people you never forget, one of those people who was content to work tirelessly behind the scenes to help them realize their hockey dreams."

Kim worked for Cooper and his Bandits hockey team in Texarkana. And a few years later, she joined him with another franchise in St. Louis.

Jon Cooper - and a number of his players - eventually left for bigger and better things. And so did Kim, working later for the Shreveport Mudbugs Central Hockey League franchise and then in marketing and public relations in the entertainment industry.

But just over a year ago, Cannon, by then a Shreveport resident, was tragically killed when her SUV was struck by a semi-tractor on Interstate 20.

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Hockey honors an amazing young woman

And Jon Cooper, the leader of the best hockey team in the world, who remembered those lean, not-so-long-ago days in Texarkana, and who loved that hardworking, tireless young woman, decided that Kim Cannon should be remembered. So he, in association with the North American Hockey League, began the Kim Cannon Internship, a position awarded annually to a recent college graduate interested in pursuing a career in sports.

And now the league is accepting applications for the 2022-2023 season.

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How to apply

Candidates for the Kim Cannon internship should be recent college grads and be able to relocate to the Dallas, Texas, area. The internship is a 12-month long position that begins August 1, 2022 and ends July 31, 2023. A monthly stipend for expenses will be provided. The position places a strong emphasis on introducing the intern to all aspects of NAHL league operations and administration. Applications are currently being accepted until February 15, 2022.

When the internship was announced, Jon Cooper said, “The Kim Cannon internship is an annual commitment by myself and the wonderful owners of the NAHL to ensure Kim’s legacy can live on and that we can honor her memory and give somebody an opportunity to make an impact on the hockey world and the lives of others in such a positive way that Kim did."

For any one interested in finding out more about the North American Hockey League, the Kim Cannon Internship, or to apply for the position, JUST CLICK HERE!

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