After an outstanding scholastic career at Derby High School, he went to The University of Connecticut where he was a fullback-linebacker, captain of the football team and a Little All-America and All-East selection; and after graduating from The University of Connecticut,he attended Columbia University where he was a graduate assistant football coach while earning a master's degree, was then head coach of Hamden High School from 1958 to 1963,and was then defensive backfield coach at The University of Connecticut for one year; and he then gained national recognition during the 1960's and 1970's as defensive coordinator for Yale University's football team for the first seventeen years that Carm Cozza was coach,during which they coached ten Ivy League championship teams and Amendola's defenses ranked number one in the Ivy League for ten consecutive seasons and in the top ten nationally eight times; and he was then head football coach at Central Connecticut State University from 1982 to 1986, assistant
athletic director at Central Connecticut from 1986 to 1990,athletic director at Hamden High School from 1990 to 1991, and then athletic director at East Haven High School for the past three years; and he was past president of the New Haven Gridiron Club, member of the New Haven County National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame, a consultant for American Football in Europe,and a member of the board of trustees of the United States Tackle Football Federation to promote football as an Olympic sport; and he leaves a loving wife, Catherine Montano Amendola;mother, Sadie Queeno Amendola; children, David, Bonnie and Blake Amendola, Catherine Rice and Joanne Sokolic, and other loving relatives; and Amendola's joy of life, interest in his players' lives and love of football will be remembered by his many friends and colleagues as much as his success as a player, coach and athletic director.