Honors & Awards
- 2023 WCGA Co-Regional Assistant Coach of the Year
In 2023, Amato helped the Huskers to the a postseason berth, finishing the season at the NCAA Denver Regional. Amato helped the Huskers record the 10th-best uneven bars score in school history, tallying a 49.500 on the event twice. He coached three Huskers to All-Conference honors while Emma Spence was named WCGA Co-Regional Gymnast of the Year.
In 2022, Amato helped coach two Huskers to compete individually at the NCAA Seattle Regional. Amato also helped coach one All-Conference selection as Kinsey Davis was named First-Team All-Big Ten.
In 2021, Amato finished his first season as the assistant coach, and his first full season. Amato helped the Huskers to numerous individual honors. Earning two spots on the All-Championships team, Amato helped Kaitlyn Higgins and Anika Dujakovich to a successful Big Ten Championship showcase. Amato finished the season at the NCAA Athens Regional where six Huskers competed in seven events.
Amato spent seven seasons as an assistant coach at Oregon State. He helped lead Oregon State to a sixth-place finish at the 2019 NCAA Championships. The Beavers' bars team was challenged with replacing half of the previous season's lineup due to graduation and injury. Amato's squad did not suffer a fall in the final nine meets of the season. He coached Hallie Briscoe to second team All-America honors on bars in 2019.
In 2018, Amato led the Beavers' bars squad to a No. 21 ranking with a team Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 49.200 and a season high of 49.400. In 2017, Amato coached Kaytianna McMillan to Oregon State's first 10.0 score on bars since 2008.
Amato's uneven bars lineup in 2016 finished the season tied for 10th in the nation. McMillan earned NACGC/W Regular Season All-America first-team honors under Amato's guidance on the bars after ending the regular season ranked No. 7 with an (RQS) of 9.925. Amato coached his first gymnast to All-America honors in 2015 when Erika Aufiero earned first-team All-America honors.
Prior to his time at Oregon State, Amato served as the head bars coach at Brandy Johnson's Global Gymnastics in Clermont, Fla., since 2008. In 2013, Amato's team won the Level 10 Florida State Championship and was voted the nation's Level 10 Team of the Year in 2012. During his 17 years of club coaching, Amato helped 20 gymnasts earn Division I scholarships.
Amato is the current Vice-President of the Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association. He received his bachelor's degree from Portland State in liberal studies with a focus on exercise physiology in the winter of 2016. Amato is currently pursuing his MBA in sports business at Saint Leo University.
Amato and his wife, Tori, have two children, Alex and Brooke.