Sports

John Danowski: From East Meadow to National Champion

The head coach of Duke lacrosse was born and raised in East Meadow.

John Danowski was destined to be involved with sports.

Before Danowski, 57, was born, his father Ed was a three-time all-pro quaterback for the New York Giants.

Although Danowski followed in his father's footsteps by playing football until college, his true niche lies in lacrosse, and in 2010, he guided the Duke Blue Devils to the National Championship.

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And it all started in East Meadow.

Danowski spent his childhood ingrained with East Meadow sports. His father taught at and McCleary Junior High School, and he coached as well.

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"I grew up watching East Meadow athletes," Danowski said. "I probably went to every football game from the time I was in first grade on."

Danowski played football and lacrosse throughout childhood, and he also liked to play pick-up basketball games at . Danowski said that he used to wait around with the hope of being picked to play in a game. People like Kevin Joyce, who was captain of the 1972 Olympic team, used to come down for the games as well.

"The hope was that your team could play well," Danowski said. "If you won, you could just stay on the court and keep playing."

After Danowski graduated in 1972, he attended Rutgers University and majored in environmental science with a minor in education. Just five years after he graduated from East Meadow High School, he was back coaching junior varsity lacrosse in 1977. Danowski followed that by coaching lacrosse at C.W. Post and Hofstra University.

After leading the Pride to 192 wins, Danowski applied to be the head lacrosse coach at Duke University. After the Duke lacrosse scandal of 2006, in which the charges were thrown out, Mike Pressler resigned after a 16-year tenure. Danowski's son, Matt, was one of the stars of the Blue Devils, and Danowski applied for the position.

Danowski wasted little time bringing the winning attitude back to Duke. In his first season, Duke reached the National Title game, only to fall 12-11 to Johns Hopkins. In 2008, Duke entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed, but Johns Hopkins eliminated them again in the semifinals.

"You learn more from your losses than you do from your wins," Danowski said. "It does make you hungrier."

In 2010, after a loss to Virginia in the first round of the ACC Tournament, Danowski had a sit-down with his senior players, and then something clicked.

"I think, after that, it really seemed to refocus everyone," Danowski said."And that was really kind of the trigger for them."

Danowski won his first National Title when Duke topped Notre Dame in overtime. He remembered thinking of all the coaches who helped him over the years.

"When I walked off the field that day, I thought about all the guys I had coached with, and how they never got a chance to be in the situation that I was in," Danowski said. "Sometimes in coaching, you do a great job and don’t get to win a championship. I knew I was very fortunate, and I wished I could share that feeling with those guys."

Danowski said that he "stole a little bit" from everyone he's coached with along the way, but he knows that his experience in East Meadow helped shape the man and coach he's become.

"As far as I was concerned, East Meadow was the center of the universe," Danowski said. "Everything that we needed was right there. It was the greatest place in the world to grow up."


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