Luckily no one was injured and the Wagners have always remembered the experience in a mostly positive light thanks to the response by Tinley Park Fire Department firefighters. So when Robbin Wagner was notified in September that her dish was the grand prize winner of the Food Network’s Firehouse Sub Side Dish Challenge, she requested the $5,000 donation prize be donated directly to the TPPD.

“I thought the place needed help, not to say the volunteers don’t do an amazing job, because they do,” Winistorfer said. “But I thought they could use some help in the form of supplies and it’s for a great cause.”

“I would tend to think we can take bigger steps forward,” new coach Ryan Honan said. “We have the pieces where we have some talent and some intangibles that makes me think we can take a big step forward. There is aggressiveness that we like."

“I was always pretty tall,” Fitch said. With nice comedic timing, Meuris added, “I was always pretty short.” The long and the short of it is that both players will be keys for Andrew’s girls basketball team this season.

“It’s important to me as a veteran to show appreciation to those that sacrificed and gave so much of themselves,” Thirion said. “The people who enter the military, it’s a calling for them. They give up a lot for us, they are the embodiment of unity and all that is good about this country.”