Forged by FAU - Amanda Odato Rack
Wajih AlBaroudi
6/21/2020
#ForgedbyFAU
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I felt very accomplished and excited. All the years and hours and hours of practice, games and traveling – and money, really – that my parents put into soccer … I just felt really accomplished and really proud it finally paid off. It got me into a school that I really loved. It was Division I and just had all the attributes I really loved.
Amanda Odato Rack always appreciated family and the beach, and Florida Atlantic University offered both. The Boca Raton campus was minutes away from both the Atlantic Ocean and her grandparents in Deerfield Beach.
Upon visiting FAU, Odato Rack says she felt "good vibes from the start." Those vibes magnified when the university offered the soccer standout an athletic scholarship.
"I felt very accomplished and excited," said Odato Rack, who twice earned First Team All-Seminole Athletic Conference honors. "All the years and hours and hours of practice, games and traveling – and money, really – that my parents put into soccer … I just felt really accomplished and really proud it finally paid off. It got me into a school that I really loved. It was Division I and just had all the attributes I really loved."
Odato Rack signed with the Owls and made her debut in 2011, registering 12 starts over 14 caps. The next season looked even more promising for the talented midfielder. But an injury limited her to four caps and 70 minutes.
Instead of allowing the injury to define her, though, Odato Rack improved as a student and community member. She began serving as FAU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President in 2012 while earning her second of six All-Academic honors.
Odato Rack returned to the pitch in 2013 under new FAU coach Patrick Baker - a "breath of fresh air," she says – and produced career bests in points (five), shots (12), games (19) and starts (16). The following year, Odato Rack helped FAU to its best winning percentage since 2007 and laid the foundation for the championship-caliber squad it is today.
"We were kind of the team that helped turn the program around," Odato Rack said. "So, it felt really cool to be a part of that."
As SAAC President, Odato Rack gathered the concerns, thoughts and ideas of FAU's student-athletes then brought them to Conference USA and the NCAA. She describes her former role as the "voice of all the athletes."
Student-athletes weren't the only ones benefitting from Odato Rack's efforts, though. In 2014, C-USA awarded Odato Rack its Fall Spirit of Service honor for her extensive community volunteer work. With the help of Boca Helping Hands, Odato Rack created a food fundraiser and collected what she describes as a "pretty hefty amount" of cans and donations before the holidays.
Odato Rack also helped plan the first ever "Owlspys." She got the idea from a fellow SAAC representative and implemented it in 2014, her final year at FAU. The event still proceeds on campus.
"We just wanted it to be a fun night for all the athletes to come together, let loose, laugh at themselves but also get rewarded for everything they've done," said Odato Rack, who served as FAU's SAAC president from 2012-14.
After graduating with a hospitality management degree in 2014, Odato Rack worked as a full-time event assistant with a company she interned with her final semester. But she soon realized the job wasn't for her and left around nine months later.
Odato Rack now works in outside sales for the Boca Raton branch of Worldwide Express, a third-party logistics company. She's entering her fourth year there and is thriving thanks to the skills she acquired as an FAU student-athlete.
"Time management, I learned that a ton from college," Odato Rack said. "My competitive drive, just being an athlete in sales, that's needed. So, a lot of the attributes of being a student-athlete I've brought to my career."
During her high school recruitment, Odato Rack valued FAU's proximity to family. And through the university she extended it. Odato Rack met Jesse Rack, then a football graduate assistant, during her playing days and married him last year. They now own a house together in the city they met and grew to love: Boca Raton.
"Every year it keeps growing and I love seeing that," Odato Rack said. "But I just love how Boca is in the heart of so many cool, different things. If you're in Boca, you can be in Delray in 15 minutes and be on Atlantic Ave. Or you can go over to Mizner and walk around all those beautiful shops. The beaches…just everything.
"I'm not sure what's not to like in Boca."