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stouffville suntribunem thursday sept 13 2007 29 stouffville suntribune batter veltman behind rock bench in 09 staff photosusie kockerscheidt stouffville lions sullivan stobo knocks out a hit against famous sams during the wwtchurchstoufrfville minor softball associations yearend tournament in memorial park saturday for more information go to wssanetfirmscpm jim veltman has announced he will end his playing career with the toronto rock after the 2008 national lacrosse league season but for the 41 yearold stouffville resident and rock captain at doesnt mean he will end his association with the club the rock announced tuesday veltman has inked a fiveyear deal to become an assistant coach to glenn clark in 2009 a 15year veteran and the leagues alltime leader in corralling loose balls velt man was ecstatic it was a pretty big day he said im excited about the deal my wife is happy so are my kids when you sign a fiveyear deal its a good deal for everybody involved we actually talked about it two years ago when terry sanderson was relieved as head coach and glenn clark came on board there was talk of what i would do when i finished playing and i liked the idea to come in gradually as being an assistant or co- head coach first and learn the brampton native said things changed six weeks ago when veltman was con tacted by the colorado mam moth about becoming their head coach once he retired from active duty i had to come up with a decision veltman said i researched the job and talked to people in the rock organization and things just accelerated into yesterday tuesdays signing teammates for nine sea sons clark welcomes velt- mans presence if s great jim has a great lacrosse mind and hell be a good asset to our staff jim and i have been good friends on and off the floor and this lis pretty exciting and its good for the organization clark a former stouffville resident who now lives in thomhill said mike hayakawa perfect in preseason spirit plays for real tonight hosts collingwood in provincial jr a opener by mike hayakawa staff writer you wont hear stouffville spirit head coach dave dajrvmizio com plain about his club going unde- feated through its provincial junior a hockey league preseason schedule the ninegame exhibition run was capped off sunday with a 51 win over the mississauga chargers in the final of the oha preseason tourna ment at the al palladini community centre in vaughan while the firstyear spirit head coach is proud of the way his troops played he is quick to note its a thing of the past starting tonight the spirit begin play for keeps when they open the regular season at the stouffville arena against a young collingwood blues team at 730 pm sure we had a great start in the preseason but now the real stuff starts he said its no good to go 80 in the preseason and go 02 in your first two regular season games now weve got to start a new winning streak hopefully though winning the tournament is a sign of things to come dammizio couldnt be happier with how his troops have grasped the staff s new philosophy weve progressed far more than what i had expected he said i dont want to take too much from the pre season but were happy with the development of our players the coaches are still experiment ing with line combinations and doesnt anticipate anything concrete until after thefirst 10 games were definitely deep with our forward lines and weve been play ing guys on different lines and trying them in different roles he said the blueline has been banged up but dammizio anticipates almost everyone will be healthy for tonights game however hes pleased with the leadership provided by veterans daniel spivak tom kokelj and trev or smith and newcomers like matt westlake jarred seymour michael gillenandtimhalloran seymour suffered a bruised back during the tournament but could be ready for tonights opener halloren could be out one to two weeks after his forearm was cut by a skate while incumbent trevor oneill will see the bulk of the work between the pipes dammizio said the back up role should be ably manned by german tsatura a member of the petrolia jets of the western ontario hockey league last season tsatura made his first start for the spirit in its dramatic 32 overtime semifinal win sunday over the milton icehawks german played phenomenal dammizio said trevor is our no 1 goalie and german can play any game and be solid for us spirit general manager matt gib son has also been pleased with the work of tsatura and declared he is the clubs final piece to their puzzle he has some definite junior expe rience gibson said scoring for the spirit in sundays final were donivan munro with two goals while corey trivino randy johnston and taylor law added sin- gles trivino scored the game- winning goal earlier that day in their overtime win over milton leading up to the semifinal the spirit finished atop its pool after defeating the chargers 73 thursday the icehawks 32 friday and burling ton cougars 43 saturday for information more on the spirit go to stoufmllespiritcom rained out tuesday mennos try again hockey isnt the only game in town tonight the elements did not do the stouffville mennos or oshawa ravens any favours tuesday what was supposed to be the first game of their bestofthree oshawa city and district fastball league semifinal series in oshawa was cancelled after one inning due to rain the mennos had scored two runs in their half of the inning before the game was called as a result the first game will be played tonight at memorial park at 830 pm the date for the second game has yet to be deter mined as of press time for updates go to ocdflca i t 1 it scored 96 everyone at dinner raved wines at great value and you carfl gel lhem anywhere else visit yorkregionwineclubcom check out our handpicked sel of exdusive imported wines oil delivered anywhere you choose in ontario rlllra ctuma num v v jffiz- yrmg qwtaegtai com wine 8 online co r