Name: Billy Carr
Occupation: Volunteer of the Year/Mervue FC Coach
Location: Mervue
Favourite thing about Galway: The friendliness of the people
Worst thing about Galway: I can't think of anything!

Although originally from the West of the city, Billy Carr is a Mervue man through and through. After being involved with underage teams in the area for over 40 years, his efforts were formally recognised last Tuesday night when he was named Volunteer of the Year at the Mayor's Awards 2009.

Billy Carr has been involved in sport all his life, from kicking around a ball with his classmates at Claddagh School to playing with Grattan United and Our Lady's Boys Club as a young lad.

Over 30 years ago, he began to train underage teams and has made an insurmountable contribution to the local community ever since. Despite still coaching at the age of 70, Billy says that training younger teams is something he simply fell in to.

"I did a few courses, but I haven't had much training really. As soon as I started doing it, I realised that I really enjoyed it and I've met so many great people and made some great friends through it over the years. People in Mervue are sports mad. If you live in Mervue and you're not into sports, there must be something wrong with you!" he says.

Billy's involvement with the younger teams gives him a great sense of pride, particularly seeing his former charges pursuing a successful career in the sport.

"The lads are lovely; it's great to work with them and it's amazing to see when they do well. It was great to see young Greg Cunningham make his debut with Manchester City recently. There are so many people that give so much time to the club, 13 months a year, so it's great to see it all pay off. It's gas; as soon as you finish up with one team, they have you down for another, but I love it."

However, while Billy is passionate about the sport, he believes that education should be the focus for the young members of the team and, while teenagers may have a reputation for being rowdy, Billy keeps them on a short leash.

"It's important that education comes first and I like to make sure that they all have their homework done before they come down training. There is no messing around and, to their credit, I haven't had one complaint about any of the lads over the years. Fair play to their parents, they are a great bunch of lads and, even though we would do a lot of travelling to matches and everything, they are very well behaved."

As well as training the underage teams, Billy has also played a huge role in fundraising for the club, raising between €30,000 and €40,000 every year. He has done this every week of every year for the last 15 years, going door to door in his local area collecting for his club's Lotto. The money had gone to provide top-class facilities for the young people of this city, with between 3,500 and 4,000 using them every week.

Billy modestly underplays his contribution, saying that it is a joint effort from all involved that has taken the club to where it is today and that he was shocked to receive the Volunteer of the Year Award. He also had double the reason to celebrate, as he welcomed his first grandchild into the world the following day.

An avid sports fan, Billy enjoys putting a few bets on the horses during the week and follows all the different sporting events, especially those including his favourite Premiership team, Burnley. An mechanic by trade, he has a reputation as a great neighbour who would never see anyone in trouble.

Going forward, Billy is enthusiastic about the development of underage teams in all disciplines and believes that having dedicated coaches and staff in the club is the key.

"We are very lucky; there are so many great coaches and different people who contribute to the club and it's so important to have that. The best thing about being involved is being able to do my bit and I've made so many great friends as well."

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