GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After her freshman season, Sheaffer Skadsen seriously contemplated walking away from athletics. Among the best players from the state of Washington, as well as a top-50 national prospect, her first year at the University of Arizona was miserable. For the first time in Skadsen's life, soccer wasn't fun and her best options, the way she saw it, were either to transfer or quit. It was a sentiment shared by several of her Wildcat teammates.
Then
Tony Amato happened.
UA made a coaching switch and brought in a little-known 34-year-old by way of Stephen F. Austin.
"He saw how we were hurting individually and as a team, and had this plan that met us on a personal level, physical level and got us to jump aboard," Skadsen recalled Monday. "We were 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds at a party school in Tucson, so getting us all on the same page was going to be tough, yet his ability to understand us, that was huge. The way he engaged the group from the outset— 'This is what I can provide, this is where we're going, this is how we'll get there. — was really inspiring. After that, things changed. Everything changed."
In Amato's first season, the Wildcats posted a winning record. in his second, they went to just the third NCAA Tournament in program history and began a run of five NCAA appearances over the next six seasons, including a trip to the Sweet 16.
Arizona wasn't the first women's soccer program to experience Amato's energy jolt. He did it at SFA and before that at Division II Rollins. On Monday,
Florida became the next project for Amato, who in succeeding retired future UF Hall-of-Famer Becky Burleigh will become next fall just the second coach to walk the sidelines in Gators' history.
"If you look not only at what he's done, but what those programs were doing before he got there, obviously, you can see a definitive trend line from the day he showed up to what happened afterward — and it's consistent," UF athletic director
Scott Stricklin said. "He did it at three different schools, at three different levels, and [most recently] at a place that was really struggling in the toughest soccer league in the country. He put them in position to be a regular postseason team."
In Florida, Amato will not be taking over the kind of reclamation projects he found in those previous stops. During Burleigh's 26-season reign, UF won 14 Southeastern Conference regular-season titles, plus a dozen league tournaments and the 1998 NCAA championship.
The Gators, though, last won SEC in 2015, the tournament in '16, and are coming off the first losing record in program history. After going to the NCAA Tournament 15 straight seasons (2003-2017) the Gators missed two of the last three, most recently a COVID-split 2020-21 season when the team finished 6-8-3, including 1-6-1 in SEC play.
"Obviously, it'll be a big challenge to try and fill her shoes after winning at the highest level and really building something that is significant," said Amato, now 42. "Becky set a standard that SEC championships and NCAA Tournament runs are the norm. Once we get in there, get our feet under us and set a foundation, those expectations will be realistic."
Here's is Amato's track record when he gets his feet set:
* In 2003, Amato left his job as an assistant coach at Stetson, a post he'd held for just three months, to become head women's coach at Rollins, his alma mater, where he was a three-time All-Sunshine State Conference forward and that league's 1999 player of the year. The program was just six years removed from converting from club to varsity status. The Tars set a team record for wins in Amato's first season and went 82-37-1 over his seven seasons, won the league his last two, and reached the D-II national quarterfinals in 2009-10.
* It was in 2010 when Stephen F. Austin came calling. In his second season in Nacogdoches, Texas, the Lumberjacks went unbeaten in Southland Conference play, then repeated the feat his third season — climbing to as high as No. 31 in Ratings Percentage Index and beating teams from the SEC, Big 12 and Conference USA — on the way to guiding SFA to its first NCAA berth.
* Then came 2013 and his biggest challenge yet. Arizona had won just seven games the previous two seasons and was two years removed from an abysmal 1-16-2 campaign. The Wildcats went 9-7-4 in Amato's first go-round, then 11-8-2 in the second to begin the program's NCAA run.
At UA, he became the winningest coach in the program's 27-year history at 88-53-17, including a 39-39-9 mark in the formidable Pac-12. Amato's 18-season record at the three schools was 215-102-31, for a winning percentage of .662.
"We focus on strengths. We find what people are good at and we elevate that to be elite, so they can do what they do best every day," Amato said. "We talk them through that by emphasizing thinking outside the box and overcoming obstacles."
His is a measured, calculated and cerebral way of doing things.
But there's also a personal touch.
Tony Amato will soon be addressing the Gators in the manner he addressed his teams at Arizona. [Photo from AllSportsTucson.com]
Morgan McGarry, a defender for the Wildcats from 2015-19, remembers sitting in class and seeing her phone buzz. It was Amato. He wanted to tell her himself that she'd been named to the All-Pac 12 team, but did so with a disclaimer.
"He thanked me for being part of the process and for trusting him and the staff," McGarry recalled. "And then he said, 'But we're not done yet. Don't become complacent.' He took that time to reach out personally and remind me to keep pushing and grinding. That moment, to me, was one that encompassed who he is as a coach."
Those were the kinds of moments the University Athletic Association's search committee kept happening upon as they vetted their candidate in the desert. The members learned Amato was a man with a plan who could adjust on the fly, be it while setting culture, at practice or between the lines during games. In addition to the physical demands, academics and community service are paramount to his program, as well. As for style of play, Amato prefers an uptempo pass and doesn't like passing just to possess. He wants to pass to score.
His philosophy, however, will evolve based on his roster.
"We did our research. He's not one who says, 'This is my plan! We're going to do it no matter what.' He tailors his plan to the skills set of the team and individual players and doesn't ask them to do things they're not good at," Stricklin said. "That sounds simple, but there's more to it than that."
McGarry, a Californian who arrived at UA during Amato's third season, started the last 60 games of her career as a defender, but spent her freshman year redshirting, watching and focusing on her coach on the sidelines.
"I was a fly on the wall for those games and I would see his interactions with the players, and how quickly he'd make adjustments," McGarry said Monday. "He took in everything and was always adaptable. Now he's going to a new conference, another really good conference, but he's been successful in every conference he's coached in, including the Pac-12. It's because he always has a plan. Or plans. If Plan A didn't work, he'd go to B, C, D or E."
Now, it's on to Plan F, as in Florida. Though Amato was born and raised near Philadelphia, his parents divorced and he moved with his mother to Naples, Fla., at the age of seven and remained in the state — Baron Collier High, college and coaching in Winter Park, marrying a former University of Tampa soccer player from nearby Dunedin — for the next 25 years. During that time, Amato cultivated relationships on the prep and club circuit that he still has today.
"It wasn't a prerequisite," Stricklin said, "but the fact he's from Florida and understands the state and understands what the Gators stand for was a cherry on top."
Tony Amato
Now comes the homecoming, of sorts.
"Sometimes you find yourself thinking about the big jobs in the country and if you could ever end up at one of those jobs, but it's not like I ever thought, 'Oh yeah, that's the path I'm going to take.' It doesn't work like that," Amato said. "In the coaching world, you put your head down and coach your team, and if you're successful and opportunities arise you determine if it's a good fit. That's what I was doing at Arizona when this came up. It made a lot of sense to come back."
And now he's a Gator. Well, almost.
"As soon as I put the hat and the shirt on, it's go time," Amato said.
In anticipating just where this next chapter might go, Skadsen, who graduated from dental school this week, had some advice for the UF players.
"Buy in. You can trust this man. He's done it before and if you commit and buy in and listen, you also will be listened to and you will have your chance and opportunity," Skadsen said. "I don't remember our record our freshmen year, but I think we were 11th in the Pac-12. It wasn't cute, whatever it was. But once we got it going, all of sudden, our locker room had swag — and we were winning. What a rewarding experience that was."
