Capalaba greyhound volunteer honoured ahead of racing return

By Andrew Smith

Sitting next to Tingalpa Creek, the Capalaba Greyhound Racing Club often has ducks attempting to eat the grass on the track.

However, they are no match for the club’s dedicated volunteer Trevor McSherry.

Club operations manager Erin Cameron says when she checks the security cameras late at night, she will often see Trevor shooing ducks off the track with a laser.

For that, and his years of service at the Redland City-based club, Trevor has been presented with the Racing Queensland Cheer A Volunteer award.

Racing will return to Capalaba this Sunday, April 20, after being put on hold for over a month due to Cyclone Alfred.

It has taken the mammoth efforts of the club's dedicated volunteers, including Trevor, to get the track ready to race on again.

The 74-year-old has been helping out around the club for decades, and believes it help keeps him young.

He thanked his wife Annita for supporting him as he talked about his passion for the venue.

“It does keep me pretty active - while you’ve got good health, you’ve got to have something to do,” Trevor said.

“I used to come down here when it used to be a Saturday meeting around 1988, and we used to punt, and when I retired I used to come down here and do the trials.

“I used to work with (former greyhound trainer) Wayne Harris but he’s gone now, and now I’ve ended up here full-time.

“You’re helping the club out of course, but I had to have something to do too when I retired, otherwise I would probably be dead and gone too.

“I don’t expect anything but I’m grateful for the award.”

Trevor’s main job is to look after the track and the maintenance at the club, ensuring the turf is in tip-top shape for race days.

Cameron said the club stalwart offered so much more than just taking care of the grass.

“He’s just fantastic and he’s our Messiah, we just love him - he’s like our answer to everything, anything goes wrong we just turn to Trevor and that’s really great for us,” Cameron said.

“It’s everything - repairs, maintenance, the track, anything to do with the bar.

“He basically sleeps on the track, his wife is always looking for him and he’s on the track, and he just does an absolutely fantastic job.

“We couldn’t do it without him.”

The Capalaba club hosts around 80 meetings a year, with the 366m track hosting racing every Sunday and every second Wednesday.

Trevor said his greatest satisfaction came from seeing everything run smoothly without a hitch on a race day.

With volunteers at greyhound clubs especially hard to come by, he believes the Capalaba environment is the perfect place for them to learn the ropes.

“There were a lot of volunteers but now there’s hardly any in the greyhound industry I think,” McSherry said.

“It’s a good group of people we work together here, everything runs smooth , and that’s the way it should be.

“Come down and have a go, see if you like it - you’ll either like it or you won’t, some days are hard and some days easy.”

Trevor’s efforts paid off when the club hosted its annual Capalaba Cup meeting in October.

A bumper crowd was on hand to witness Simply Express cause a boilover in the $75,000-to-the-winner finale.

The club is always on the lookout for more volunteers to assist Trevor with his duties.

“With the public side of things it was great on Cup day - we got a good crowd and had a few parties so we were rapt with the attendance,” Cameron said.

“It’s a great family-type thing, we all work together and everything from doing the lawns to track to maintenance - just come give us a hand, it’s a great place to be.”

Clubs are encouraged to nominate their valued volunteers for the award, which is sponsored by Neil Mansell Transport & Mittys.

State-wide, there are more than 8,300 volunteers who make an invaluable contribution to the industry, providing their time and expertise to sustain Queensland’s three codes of racing.

Click here for more information on Cheer A Volunteer and to nominate.