Matt Root B.Ed (Hons) - The R66T Academy Founder
Matt's first experience of cricket coaching came during studying for his degree in Physical Education in 1988, during which he developed one of the world’s first interactive video databases of cricket skills.
As a player, he captained Notts U19 and played a number of county 2nd team games. Matt won the Bassetlaw League (now ECB Notts Premier League) with Notts and 5 Yorkshire League titles and a National KO title with Sheffield Collegiate CC, where he played with former England Captain Michael Vaughan. Matt played for the Yorkshire League representative team for a number of years and in 2015 captained an MCC tour to Cyprus.
As a coach, Matt taught his sons, Joe and Billy, the fundamentals of the game, emphasising the importance of simplicity and hard work. They didn’t always get it right but application and dedication has led to amazing results.
He acknowledges that the game is constantly changing so by creating a team of dynamic and experienced coaches at The R66T Academy, the hope is that the same coaching principles can be applied and delivered via the very latest coaching tools.
Shaun Seigert - Head Coach Of The High Performance Program's
Shaun Seigert from Adelaide, South Australia has been a coach for 27 years, having represented South Australia in his playing days at U17, U19, U23 and State 2nd X1.
Shaun began coaching as the Head Coach of Tea Tree Gully, in the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) Premier Grade competition. He then progressed into the SACA High Performance Pathway. He moved into the role as Head Coach of the SACA State U17, U19 teams and then as the Assistant Coach of the SACA 2nd X1 team.
Shaun has twice completed the Cricket Australia High Performance Level 3 course, which is the highest qualification for cricket coaches in the Australian system. In 2005, the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy was founded and Shaun was appointed Head Coach. During that year, former England spinner Monty Panesar attended the Academy and within 4 weeks, Panesar debuted for England against India.
Shaun was Head Coach of the programme for over 13 years and oversaw the development of hundreds of players including 32 players who went onto play International Cricket. The players include Joe Root, Jason Roy, Sam Billings, Liam Livingstone and Alex Hales to name a few. From the Academy, there were also over 200 players who went on to become First Class players in England and players who participated in the U19 World Cup. Later on In 2018, Shaun joined the Root Academy to bring his training methodology, programmes and structures to continue to develop players in the High Performance Programme in Adelaide, Australia as Joe Root attended the season prior to him breaking into the Yorkshire Cricket first team.
Ben Stephens - Executive Director
Ben has spent the last few years establishing himself as a highly respected figure in youth cricket in Essex.
Ben and Matt have very similar coaching principles, with a focus on keeping the technical aspects of the game as simple as possible.
His passion for the game is evident in the variety of content in his coaching sessions and is extremely popular with those under his guidance.
Ben organised the first series of R66T Academy camps in the UK in 2018.
Nick Gaywood - R66T Academy Coach
Nick is a vastly experienced Physical Education Teacher from the renowned Loughborough University. As an ECB Level 2 coach he has taught and coached cricket both in school settings, including running cricket at Worksop College, and in the club environment. Nick is a strong believer in using constraints based approaches to develop player understanding.
As a player he has represented Devon, the Minor Counties representative team, Notts 2nd XI and the MCC. Recently he has been selected for the England O60’s and still plays league cricket for Sheffield Collegiate.
George Bartlett - R66T Academy Coach
George is an ECB Level 2 Cricket Coach with 10 years of cricket coaching experience. He has a BSc Honours Degree 1st Class in Sports Coaching and has played cricket at Minor Counties level and ECB Premier League Club level.
His coaching experience includes working with Wimborne CC, Dorset County Cricket Club, Chance 2 Shine, Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Club, Yorkshire Cricket Board, The Foundation of Goodness (Sri Lanka) and the R66T Academy.
George has playing experience as an opening batter and off-spin bowler includes Minor Counties experience with Dorset County Cricket Club, ECB Premier League experience with Sheffield Collegiate and further club experience with
Wimborne CC.
R66T ACADEMY COACHES ARE ALL DBS CHECKED
