Jim Veltman is one of the most popular and richest Lacrosse Player who was born on March 8, 1966 in Brampton, Canada. Veltman is the very first winner of the National Lacrosse League Sportsmanship Award in 2002. He also was named the league’s MVP of 2004. He was also the very first winner of the Toronto Rock’s Les Bartley Award (not to be confused with the NLL’s Les Bartley Award for coach of the year).
Jim Veltman led the National Lacrosse League in loose balls in 14 out of the 16 seasons he played, earning him the nickname “Scoop”. On February 5, 2006, Veltman reached a milestone as he “scooped” his 2000th career loose ball. He also set the single season record for loose balls with 226 in the 2006 season. Veltman scooped 14 loose balls on April 8, 2006, to break his own previous record of 207, set in 2003. The record stood until Geoff Snider scooped 244 in 2008. John Tavares, the NLL’s all-time leading scorer, considers Veltman to be “the best teammate he ever had.”
On September 11, 2007, the Toronto Rock announced that they had resigned Veltman to a five-year agreement. Veltman would remain captain of the Rock for one more season, after which he would retire from playing and join the Rock coaching staff. The announcement ended speculation that Veltman was considering retiring to take the vacant Colorado Mammoth head coach position, a position eventually taken by Bob McMahon.
The year 1998 saw Veltman came back to the NLL in 1998, and joined Bandit the head coach Les Bartley to the expansion Ontario Raiders located within Hamilton, Ontario. The following year the Ontario franchise moved to Toronto which became Toronto Rock. Toronto Rock, where Jim has also won five NLL Championships. Veltman was Captain for the Rock from 1999 until his departure in the course of the 2008 season.
Veltman started the first phase of his NLL profession in 1992 when he joined his team, the Buffalo Bandits. He played five seasons for the Bandits and won 3 NLL Championships. Following the 1996 season, Veltman and his wife went to Uganda where they worked as volunteers service for 17 months.
2003 – Captain of Team Canada, winners of the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships
