25 year old takes the reins at historic club

Jackson Barby might well be one of the youngest administrators ever to take the reins at a major regional Victorian harness racing club, but he’s intent on making his mark at Maryborough, in the Central Highlands.

The 25-year-old is a Maryborough local through and through – but with a sports administration and marketing background, his skills and energy are changing the vibe at a club known as “the home of the trotter” and steeped in harness racing history.

“The job at Maryborough Harness Racing Club came up and it just ticked all the boxes.  I was very honest about the fact that I have no harness racing background at all – but that is the beauty of it.  I am so fortunate that the previous Manager, Les Chapman, all the committee and the members have all been so generous in helping me learn the parts of the industry and business that I don’t know,” Barby said.

“One of the things I have picked up quite early is that this a very well-respected club and rightfully so. There’s a lot of proud history here especially relating to the Redwood Carnival and the work they have all done in re-establishing trotters as a key element of the industry,” he said.

“My challenge, and our challenge as a club and in harness racing generally, is to build on that legacy and to modernise it as well – we need to adapt and be progressive so we can position ourselves to appeal, I am hoping, to a wider audience.

“We know we have an ageing demographic, and we need to have a plan of what the club is going to look like in the next 20 or 30 years with a new demographic coming through – so how do we make sure we are relevant in that time and to those new audiences.

“One of our first small steps towards that is the rebranding of our dining room into the Redwood Function Centre, which we are doing at the moment.  It’s a terrific facility with great potential.”

Barby’s skillset and experiences have been developed in a relatively short career, but ge is passionate about the progressive and proactive management of sporting clubs.

“I first joined a sporting club committee when I was about 13 – it was the Maryborough Soccer Club, and the club was pretty much on its knees at the time, we didn’t have any money in the bank,” Barby said.

“When I finished Year 12, I became the president, so I think I was 18. I started studying business at uni, majoring in sport development and management, and really what I was learning through my study, the committee and I were putting in place as volunteers at the club,” he said.

“We went through quite a transition process. We rebranded the club, we hadn’t had a senior side for four or five years and we got that back up and running and we also increased our membership from 80 to 153. Through all that work by the time I finished up as president there last year, we were in a very financial and stable position – it was a really rewarding process for all of us.”

Professionally, Barby has also shared a journey of growth with the Maryborough Golf Club, where he found his first professional role after graduating.

“I worked a day a week for the club as a placement while I was at La Trobe, then after I finished study, they offered me an ongoing part time role in marketing and business development,” Barby said.

“It was really another positive experience. They were trying to shift the narrative of the club a little bit and change the community perception of it – instead of exclusive club they wanted to be a community club.

“Eventually, for personal reasons, I took up a full time role in another field in property management.  It was outside the sporting field, but I did learn a lot about conflict management!  Then the golf club offered me a full time job to come back doing marketing and business development.  It was intended for me to be understudy to the club manager but he left just a couple of weeks after I came on, and as we were undertaking a $2 million redevelopment.  That was a steep learning curve!

“We completed that redevelopment, and we bedded down a marketing plan for the club to go forward, and that is just starting to come to play now, as things get back to normal after COVID.”

As a result of COVID interventions and disruptions, the golf club staff were stood down, and Barby found himself working at a local Aged Care facility, eventually stepping up as Assistant CEO about 12 months ago.

“I really did love it.  It was a full-on role, but I was finding that I wanted to get back to a sports-related position and being involved with the community.  I was looking for something that was another challenge, but more aligned with what I wanted to do when I went to uni,” he said.

“As an outsider you don’t see it or appreciate it, but when you look at what it takes even just to make every race day work, it’s quite incredible to see all of those many moving parts that come together like a well-oiled machine.

“I am certainly enjoying the learning and I see great prospects for progress. I go home from work every day positive and excited because I see the opportunity for us to expand what we offer as a club and a sport.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink