Lakes' defensive line dines family-style

Quarterbacks get to throw touchdown passes, choreograph the entire offense, and talk to reporters after games.

Running backs and receivers get to run wild, make flashy catches, score touchdowns and also talk to reporters after games.

Offensive linemen typically get praise heaped on them by the grateful quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers.

Linebackers get to make big, bone-rattling tackles and cornerbacks get to make game-changing interceptions. Even kickers get to make crucial field goals and extra points. All occasionally get to talk to the reporters, too.

What do defensive linemen get?

Usually not much. Except for at Lakes.

The defensive linemen there get to eat … and eat and eat and eat. And not just any food. Every single week of the football season, they're treated to a gourmet smorgasbord of fancy appetizers, entrees and desserts.

Oh yeah, and they get heroin.

Calm down - it's just the pet name for a divine dessert that looks like a churro and is glazed in a sweet cream sauce. The linemen at Lakes nicknamed it heroin because they think it's insanely addicting.

"The first time I had the heroin dessert, I was like, 'Oh. My. God,' " Lakes senior defensive lineman Jack Grant said excitedly. "It is soooo good."

According to Grant, so is everything that Janie Gandolfi makes for the linemen's weekly feast.

Janie Gandolfi is the wife of Brent Gandolfi, an eye doctor in Gurnee who is the Eagles' defensive line coach. When Brent took the job eight years ago, he was concerned about connecting with his players since he works outside the school.

"Sometimes I feel a little cheated not being in the building," Brent Gandolfi said. "I wanted the chance to connect to my kids at a different level, something besides just what happens on the football field."

So Gandolfi decided to invite the defensive linemen to his house each week during the football season for a homemade meal. Janie, a longtime worker in the restaurant industry, was excited about the idea. It would give her the chance to showcase her vast cooking abilities, and seemingly endless supply of sophisticated and fun recipes.

"I love cooking," Janie Gandolfi said. "I worked in a lot of restaurants when I was younger and I used to train in college and I started going crazy and just cooking all kinds of stuff. I have fun cooking different things for the guys. I try to do something different every time. Never the same things."

Every Tuesday night, the defensive linemen giddily head to the Gandolfi's huge lakefront house in Antioch. They get treated to a meal that the rest of the team is insanely envious of, and then they watch film to prepare for their upcoming game.

"In the past, getting kids to play on the defensive line was a tough sell because everyone wants to be a running back or linebacker," Lakes head coach Luke Mertens said. "However, our kids love to be defensive linemen now because they get to attend these amazing Tuesday dinners.

"It's not actually the reason we want to motivate kids to play a position, but we'll take it!"

The Gandolfis' Tuesday dinners have become legendary. They are always different and always creative. Some are themed, such as Italian or Mexican cuisine. Others include a special spin on the traditional party fare, such as slabs of ribs, wings and meatballs, all with homemade dips and sauces. And some are dishes that aren't always typical of the teenage palate, such as Cornish hens, maple-glazed salmon, mashed potato muffins, chicken chimichanga, homemade pies, and gourmet salads.

"I don't like salad. Actually, I hate salad," said Grant, who has been attending Tuesday night linemen dinners since his sophomore year when he was pulled up to the varsity for the playoffs. "But I love Mrs. Gandolfi's salads. I don't know what she does to those salads, but they're the best. They're always sweet and they always have different things in them. The salads she makes are so good. I end up eating so much salad."

The Lakes defensive linemen end up eating so much food in general.

Typically, the Gandolfis run a $1,500 grocery tab for their weekly dinners, which feed about 15 kids a week and have fed nearly 1,000 kids over the last eight years. They've hosted approximately 80 dinners that they've nicknamed "Dinner and a Movie (film)."

The Gandolfis have served as many as 14 chickens, 10 pounds of pulled pork, 5 racks of ribs, 13 different appetizers, and 3 different desserts at any given dinner. When "breakfast for dinner" is on the menu, Janie Gandolfi has used five dozen eggs and four pounds of bacon.

Janie Gandolfi, a volunteer at the senior center in Antioch, usually starts her cooking at 11 a.m. on the day of the linemen dinner. She cooks and bakes all day long.

"I can work all day and in eight minutes every piece of food is gone," Janie Gandolfi said with a laugh. "Seriously. There is absolutely nothing left when the guys leave.

"But they soooo appreciate it. They are great kids and some of them don't get to eat like this very often. It's fun to hear the comments."

What might not always be said, but certainly is felt, is the gratitude the players have for the opportunity to spend time together and to have something special to share among themselves.

"All the offensive guys, the quarterback and running backs, they get all the fame," Grant said. "It's cool that we actually have something of our own, something unique."

To show how nice they are, the linemen and Coach Gandolfi started inviting two seniors who aren't defensive linemen to each dinner. By the time a Lakes football player graduates, he will have been to at least one Tuesday night dinner.

"The other guys on the team love that because they're always so jealous of us and our dinners. They're always like, 'You're so lucky.' They always say they can't wait until their senior year so they can finally come to a dinner," Grant said. "It's something you always look forward to. It's the best part of my week.

"The Gandolfis are seriously some of the coolest people I know. They are so great to invite all these guys over to their house, every week, every year. The food is so good. But just the time together has been so great for us. It's really brought all of us linemen together outside of football. It's a real family moment. We sit together make jokes, laugh and we eat. It's a really cool experience."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

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