Maroon & Gold - founder & Director

Matt is the Founder & Director of Maroon & Gold Tennis. Originally from Adelaide in Australia, he recently spent the past 9 years as the Sun Devil® Women's Tennis Associate Head Coach and has built up over 20 years of elite tennis experience as a player and coach. 

As one of Australia's leading junior players, Matt was the South Australian Junior Clay Court Champion, a member of the South Australian Sports Institute (SASI), a member of Tennis Australia's coveted Targeted Athlete Program (TAP) and a part of Australia's Junior Davis Cup Squad. 

He made his way over to the United States to play collegiate tennis at Middle Tennessee State University, where he was a Team Captain, three-time Sun Belt Conference Champion, two-time Most Outstanding Player at the Conference Championships, and three-time NCAA Tournament Participant. Matt graduated from MTSU with a degree in Exercise Science, where he was named MTSU’s Male International Student Athlete of the Year and a two-time Academic All-American. After completing his collegiate career, Matt played professionally for a short period of time and became an ATP Tour World Ranked player. 

During his time at Arizona State®, Matt was pivotal in securing multiple Top #10 nationally ranked recruiting classes, which ultimately saw the Sun Devil® Women’s Tennis program reach the NCAA Team Tournament in each season. He coached eight different players to the NCAA Individual Championships, and saw the program receive seven All-American Honors. With Matt on staff, the Sun Devils® defeated every team in the PAC-12 on multiple occasions, rose to a Top #15 national ranking, and qualified for the National Indoor Championships (Top 16 teams) for the first time in program history. Additionally, Matt guided the team to achieve an undefeated season at home, coached a doubles team to become PAC-12 Doubles Champions, and a different doubles duo to become the PAC-12 Doubles Team of the Year, and the #1 Doubles Team in the Nation – all firsts in program history. 

In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Matt also has extensive experience coaching players of ALL ages and ALL skill levels. He has personally worked with 300+ junior players across the Valley and multiple ladies teams competing in the ATA, USTA and WITL leagues. Furthermore, Matt has taught for 7 seasons at some of the most prestigious private country clubs in the United States - including the Maidstone Club, which is listed among the Top 50 Platinum Clubs in America - and the Lloyd Neck Bath Club on Long Island, New York. 

Matt's knowledge of the game and work ethic is held in the highest regard across the tennis community. When off the court, you can expect to find Matt enjoying an ice cold sweet tea at McAlister's Deli with his wife, Linny, and three-year-old son, Leyton.