He’s a cricket tragic, a Brisbane Lions tragic, a Mount Gambier Pioneers water boy and now a licensed greyhound handler.

We’re talking about 30-year-old Jarrad Williams of Mount Gambier whose most recent involvement with greyhound racing came about last year when he was a member of the Claro group who made regular Thursday afternoon trips to Tara Raceway’s race meetings.

And such was his interest that it wasn’t all that long that he had his mum, Jo, driving him to both the Thursday and Sunday meetings. Fostering the interest was Kevin “KD” Douglas who took on a supervisory role when Williams was looking to become further involved.

First it was a case of keeping an eye on him as he led greyhounds back to their trainers at the completion of a race. The next step, which required Greyhound Racing SA licencing, was to become a catcher-attendant.

So, after a period of catching greyhounds at the conclusion of their races and then returning them to their trainers, it was time for Williams to move on to the next stage of his involvement – boxing greyhounds in trials and races.

That required a significant number of appearances at Wednesday morning trial sessions to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the steward in charge that he was proficient enough to box greyhounds in races and trials.

Finally the day came that he could don his white shirt, black trousers and GRSA “We Love Our Dogs” vest and lead out his first runner in a race.

That was last Thursday when Moorak trainer Jason Newman entrusted him to box Paw Some Sandor and later Space Cadet. Both ran second and Williams passed with flying colours.

Now all that remains is for him to box his first winner. But he’s mixing in the right company so that shouldn’t take too long.