College Sports Information Directors of America

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CSC Women to Watch
Laura Amato
William & Mary Director of Creative Content

by Cort Street, CSC Intern

Laura Amato has this month’s CSC Women to Watch spotlight. Currently, she serves as the director of creative content for William & Mary. She was promoted to this role in July 2023 after starting with the school as an assistant director of media relations in 2022.

After earning her bachelor of science degreein journalism from St. John’s University, Amato immediately went to work immersing herself in a variety of roles, creating a well-rounded group of experiences from which to draw on as she continues to find her place in the athletic communications and creative field.

Throughout her 15 years of experience in athletics, Amato has been a social media specialist, a creative director, a marketing professional, and an award-winning journalist. In her current role, Amato’s focus is on overseeing and creating content for 20-plus social media accounts across multiple platforms. This content includes pregame, in-game, and post-game graphics and videos, highlight reels, and personality-driven videos.

 
How did you get started as a college sports communicator? What drew you to the profession?
LA: I’ve been around college athletics for the better part of the last decade and a half (which is very strange to say), but I was working on the other side as a journalist for most of that — still, I had to work a lot with SIDs in order to set up interviews and bounce story ideas off of. And while I mostly loved being a journalist, there were parts that I wasn’t such a big fan of, and most of those parts don’t exist from an SID-standpoint: With my role now, you still get to work with the student-athletes, tell stories, come up with creative social media ideas, travel, but you’re also not having to work sources or (usually) super tied to any sort of print deadline.

There’s not the pressure to be the first to break a story. So, after a very long and winding road, that briefly included the belief that I didn’t actually want to work in sports anymore, I saw an athletic communications job open up at William & Mary in 2022. I genuinely said, “Why not?” and sent my resume. To be honest, I missed sports. I missed working in athletics and being at games, and, sure 9-5 is nice, but I love working in athletics. Plus, a lot of that journalism experience was spent covering mid-majors, and that’s exactly what W&M offered. 

What is your best advice to the young creatives in college athletics today? 
LA: Get to know your student-athletes. Underline and bold that. Draw stars around it.

When I moved into the creative role, one of my biggest tenets was: "Humanity over highlights." We shoot highlights. We make hype videos. We post cool in-game plays. But the biggest things, in my experience, that drive content and what connects people to your program is emotion. And the best way to get emotion is to know your athletes as people. Let them know you. Introduce yourself, have conversations with them, make sure they know you’re at the games. Give them the opportunity to be the star of everything you’re doing, and then they’re going to want to do it. Anybody can post a highlight. Getting that off-the-court, off-the-field, behind-the-scenes footage, the personality-driven content that shows student-athletes as people to root for, that’s what’s going to make all the difference. Try different things, too. Not everything is going to be a home run every single time, but it could at least be, like, a double or advance the runner somehow. 

What is your favorite thing about your job? Least favorite thing? 
LA: I have long said that sports emotions are my favorite kind of emotions. And what I mean by that is the emotions beyond the final score. How did we get here? What did it take to actually win? What did we overcome to get to this point? Everybody loves an underdog, but few things in the world give us that sort of bigger-than-ourselves feeling than sports do. I love being part of that. Seeing people buy in, watching a community come together to support our student-athletes at W&M, helping to shine a spotlight on everything we’re doing and the success we have, that makes my heart grow 47 sizes, really.

As far as least favorite thing…sometimes my schedule is a little nuts and a dozen events in four days can be a little exhausting. That’s par for the course for everyone, I’m sure, but occasionally, I might be more coffee than human. 

You’ve had a wide variety of experiences and roles in the journalism and communications fields to this point. How has that diverse background benefited you in your role now? 
LA: It means I’ve encountered just about every type of personality you can in sports, both good and bad. I’ve worked with absolutely fantastic people who took the time to help me hone my skills and get me on the right path, and I’ve worked with some people who wanted to know if I really knew the game or liked to use the word 'actually' before telling me something I did was good. So, I think that’s helped me figure out what kind of person I want to be and, in a lot of cases, made me work as hard as I possibly can to prove the supporters right and - as cheesy as it sounds - the doubters wrong. Not to mention those latent journalism tendencies mean I’m constantly putting deadlines on myself whether they exist or not. I’m good at getting things done quickly, if I do say so myself!

Go a little further on this topic and discuss how your background in social helps you now at William and Mary...
From a social media standpoint, having so much experience (both in and out of sports) helps me cater to my audience. I’ve made content for everyone, I think ... from elementary school parents in Ohio to newspaper subscribers in upstate New York.

All those varying experiences now help me know how to frame what I’m creating so I get the most bang for my social-media buck. Plus, my career has grown as technology has. In some cases, that can be a challenge (How do kids edit on their phones? I don’t understand...) but most of the time, I think it’s helped because I’ve been forced to evolve with the world around me. I used to text my husband updates from high school football games so he could post them on my work Twitter because I didn’t have a smart phone yet. Now, I can edit a video on my phone. In theory, at least. 
 
You went to college at St. John’s University and spent a lot of time in New York during the beginning of your career. What drew you to William & Mary and what do you feel makes that program so special?
LA: It must be said: I love New York. It is the only place to get real bagels and this is an argument I will never cede on!

But I was very familiar with W&M because my family used to go on vacation to Williamsburg all the time. I must have gone to Williamsburg at least 50 times before we moved here. I took a summer history course at W&M my junior year in high school for fun. (I was a very cool high schooler.) I wasn’t kidding about saying “Why not?” when I saw this job opening. I love the area; this is the most gorgeous campus, and this level of college athletics is my favorite. William & Mary students are student-athletes in an underlined sort of way that I don’t think you always get, and I really wanted to be part of that. So, “Why not?”
 
I do miss New York bagels, though. 

What do you wish you had known before you started in this industry? 
LA: I knew sports happened on nights and weekends. I have always known this. But even after all my journalism experience, and the often crazy schedule that entailed, I don’t know that I was entirely ready for how crazy working in college athletics can get — especially at a smaller school with a smaller staff. Sometimes, I really am covering field hockey in the NCAA tournament at UNC and then driving back to Williamsburg to cover a women’s basketball game. 

What’s your best advice to other young female professionals who are beginning their careers in athletic communications? 
LA: Do not change. Don’t do it. You’ll be tempted. Someone will ask you if you actually understand the rules, or need help learning the sport, or if you’re just there to see your boyfriend play, and you’ll think you have to be something for someone so they don’t ask you that question anymore. Don’t do it. Own every ounce of your personality, whatever that may be. Then, let that personality spur you to every single success you have because you’ll have them. A ton of them, even. You got here for a reason. Do not change. Do not make yourself smaller. Take up space and refuse to give an inch.

How do you keep up with and recognize all the changes that happen so quickly in social trends?
LA: I spend a lot of time on my phone, really. Let’s not talk about my screen time. Also, it helps to have a very internet-focused husband. I think our chat history is 92% links of 'this is cool' sent back and forth. I also have a group of student-workers who I give an open door policy for suggestions. See something fun? Want to do something you saw? How can we get in on this? I want them to tell me, and then I want us to do that. Same with the student-athletes, honestly. If they see something one of their friends’ teams did and want to know if we can do that too — it won’t always be yes, but it will certainly be let’s try. 

(Also, those self-imposed deadlines. It really does get stuff done.) 
 
What was one of the biggest obstacles or challenges you had to overcome in your career? How did you get through that and what did you learn along the way? 
LA: When the pandemic started and sports shut down, the newspaper I was writing for had me switch from the sports desk to news for a while. I was writing obituaries. It was awful, quite honestly. I had to psych myself up to do my job every day. And I was burnt out and exhausted and sure that I wanted out of journalism, so I left. Got a 9-5, and started working in marketing and communications, and that was good for a little bit, too, but I really did miss sports. I missed being around people who cared about sports as much as I do, who love those sports emotions as much as I do. I realized this is the field for me. There isn’t another one.

No matter what I do or how my career evolves from here, being part of athletics is part of me, I think. Losing that spark for a few years was a challenge, but I’ve found my way back to it even after what was pretty much a career change at 33. That’s the lesson though, I suppose. Nothing is ever too late or too locked in. Finding joy in your work, however possible, is always the goal. 

 
Rapid fire with Laura

If you could only eat one type of cuisine for the rest of your life, what would it be? A sesame seed bagel from Uncommon Grounds, which is a coffee shop in upstate New York ... toasted with plain cream cheese and a large iced caramel latte with skim milk. I love you, Uncommon Grounds. 

What’s a skill you’ve always wanted to learn but haven’t had the chance yet? I wish I could actually speak another language. It’s not a skill I have. I forced St. John’s to let me use an extra journalism credit I had as my language credit so I didn’t have to test out of it. 

If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be? Holden Caulfield. He’s my favorite fictional character and has been since I was 16. We could get bagels in New York. 

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? Greece. But I’m also one of those people who goes to Disney World every year, so also Disney World. 

What is something people don’t know about you? I’ve read everything that J.R.R. Tolkien has ever published, including the Unfinished Tales, which as the name suggests, is actually, just, unfinished stories by Tolkien. At one point in my life, I was so into Lord of the Rings that I could quote the cast commentary on the extended edition DVDs. 

Favorite sport to cover? This is like asking a parent to pick their favorite kid. I can’t do it, and I won’t. As long as it’s not raining outside or freezing cold, I enjoy it. I hate being cold and I never wear a warm enough jacket. 

Favorite hobbies outside of work? I am far too emotionally invested in the continued success of the New York Rangers and the St. John’s men’s basketball team, and spend a lot of time reading. And also hanging out with my husband.