John Danowski (born March 12, 1954) is an American

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lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

coach who has been the head coach of the

Duke Blue Devils men's lacrosse The Duke Blue Devils men's lacrosse team represents Duke University in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's lacrosse. Duke currently competes as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and plays its home games ...

team since the 2007 season. Previously, he had spent 21 seasons as the head coach at

Hofstra Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of New ...

. Danowski coached Duke to the

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(NCAA) Men's Lacrosse Championship in 2010, 2013, and 2014, and appearances in the national championship game in 2007 and 2018. He is a three-time winner of the

F. Morris Touchstone Award The F. Morris Touchstone Award is an award given by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association to the nation's most outstanding NCAA Division I lacrosse head coach. The award was first presented in 1958. The award is named after F. Mo ...

as the NCAA men's lacrosse coach of the year, earning the honor in 1993, 2010, and 2013. One of nine coaches to lead three NCAA Division I championship teams, Danowski has won more games than any other Division I lacrosse coach. In addition, he is the head coach of the

United States men's national lacrosse team The United States men's national lacrosse team has won ten of thirteen World Lacrosse Championships, the most recent in 2018. Team USA finished second in the other three field lacrosse tournaments, losing to Canada in 1978, 2006, and 2014. The tea ...

, which he led to the gold medal at the

2018 World Lacrosse Championship The 2018 World Lacrosse Championship was the 13th edition of the international men's field lacrosse tournament for national teams organized by the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL). As many as 50 countries were expected to compete in the ...

Early life and college

Born in

Bronxville Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, ...

, New York, Danowski attended

East Meadow High School East Meadow High School is a public high school in the East Meadow Union Free School District in East Meadow, New York. The school was founded in 1953 and serves students in grades 9−12. School As of the 2018–19 school year, the school h ...

and played lacrosse from 1969 to 1972, helping his team win the county championship twice. He went to

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

and played for the school's men's lacrosse team for four seasons, from 1973 to 1976. He led the team in assists three times and, as of 2011, is Rutgers' record-holder for assists in a season, having assisted on 54 goals during the 1973 season. That year, Danowski also set the team record with 13 assists in a game against

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, and in 1974 he compiled a school-record 14 points in a game. Danowski graduated from Rutgers in 1976, and gained a master's degree in 1978 at

C.W. Post Charles William Post (October 26, 1854 – May 9, 1914) was an American innovator, breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry. He was the founder of what is now Post Consumer Brands. Early life Char ...

Coaching career

C.W. Post

In 1982, C.W. Post hired Danowski as an assistant coach for its men's lacrosse team, under Tony Seaman. The following year, he was promoted to head coach. Danowski spent three seasons as head coach for C.W. Post, compiling a 27–16 win–loss record.

Hofstra

Danowski became the head coach at Hofstra before the 1986 season. In the year before Danowski joined the school, the team had a 3–11 record. Hofstra improved under Danowski, and by 1988 the team had reached the top 15 in national polls. That year, Hofstra earned the

East Coast Conference The East Coast Conference (ECC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of C ...

championship, and added another in 1989. In 1993, Hofstra reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 15 seasons, defeating three teams ranked in the top 10 during the season. Hofstra won its first-ever NCAA Tournament game before losing to

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in the quarterfinals. Danowski was honored as coach of the year in the NCAA's Division I. The 2006 season was Danowski's last coaching at Hofstra. The team went on a 17-game winning streak, tying the record for most wins by an NCAA men's lacrosse team in a season. Hofstra achieved a national ranking of number two, but was unable to advance past the quarterfinals of that year's NCAA Tournament. In his 21 years with Hofstra, Danowski's teams were 192–123, appeared in the NCAA Tournament eight times, and won as many conference titles.

Duke

2007–2013

In 2006, as the

Duke lacrosse case The Duke lacrosse case was a widely reported 2006 criminal case in Durham, North Carolina, United States in which three members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape. The three students were David Evans, Collin ...

played out, the university's head coach,

Mike Pressler Mike Pressler (born February 27, 1960) is an American lacrosse coach. He has been the head coach of the Bryant Bulldogs since 2007. He served as the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils for 16 seasons until he was forced to resign during the Duke l ...

, was forced to resign after being in the position for 16 seasons. The team was suspended from competition by Duke's president, but in June 2006 the suspension was lifted. The following month, Duke hired Danowski to fill its vacancy at head coach. The first season for Danowski at Duke saw him lead the team to a 17-win season, the fourth in NCAA men's lacrosse history. Duke reached the championship game in the 2007 NCAA Tournament, losing 12–11 to

Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for most ...

. Danowski won the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

Coach of the Year award. In 2008, Duke entered the NCAA Tournament as the top-seeded team, only to lose again to Johns Hopkins, this time in the national semifinals. Duke lost again in the semifinals of the

2009 NCAA Tournament The 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament in which 65 schools competed to determine the national champion of the men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2008–09 basketball ...

, falling to Syracuse 17–7. Danowski won his first national championship as a head coach in the 2010 season, his fourth at Duke, in which the team posted a record of 16–4. In the title game, Duke defeated Notre Dame in overtime, scoring the winning goal five seconds after the start of the extra period. The championship was the first for Duke in men's lacrosse. Following the season, Danowski again was named Division I Coach of the Year. Danowski's Duke team again reached the semifinals of the 2011 NCAA Tournament, but lost in that round against

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. ''

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s Geoff Shannon described Danowski's 2011 performance as among "his most impressive yet in terms of pure coaching acumen", as his team was relatively inexperienced and he opted to make two freshmen starters early in the year. Danowski interviewed with

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

for that school's head coaching position after the season, but decided to remain with the Blue Devils. With a Duke victory in the first game of the 2012 season, Danowski earned his 300th win. Duke made it to the 2012 NCAA Tournament semifinals before losing to Maryland 16–10. In 2013, Duke began the season by losing four of its first six games, but posted a 14–1 record afterwards. The Blue Devils made the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament for the seventh straight year, and a 16–14 victory over

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

gave them a spot in the national championship game. Duke won its second national championship by defeating Syracuse 16–10 in the title game, held in Philadelphia. The Blue Devils finished the season with a 16–5 record, and Danowski was named the Division I coach of the year for the third time.

2014–present

The 2014 Blue Devils went 17–3 and reached the program's eighth consecutive NCAA Tournament Final Four and fourth national championship game during Danowski's tenure as coach. After earlier NCAA Tournament victories over

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

and Johns Hopkins, Duke faced Notre Dame for the championship. With an 11–9 Duke win, Danowski earned his third NCAA Division I championship, becoming the ninth coach to achieve this feat. In addition, he became the eighth coach to lead a team to consecutive NCAA Division I men's lacrosse titles. The Blue Devils' attempt to win a third straight national title ended in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament, as

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

defeated the fifth-seeded Duke team 16–11. The 2016 Blue Devils advanced no farther in the NCAA Tournament that the previous year's team, falling to Loyola in the opening round. A 13–6 Duke win over Jacksonville on March 13, 2017 was the 376th of Danowski's head coaching career, breaking the Division I record which had previously been held by former

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and

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coach

Dom Starsia Dom Starsia (born April 21, 1952) is an American lacrosse coach. He is the former head coach of the University of Virginia men's lacrosse program, with whom he won four NCAA national championships, in 1999, 2003, 2006, and 2011. Previously, he ...

. The Blue Devils again reached the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the quarterfinals before a 16–11 defeat against Ohio State. Duke ended the 2017 season with a 13–5 record. In 2018, Danowski's Duke team again participated in the NCAA Tournament, earning the fourth seed. With a win over Maryland, the Blue Devils reached their first NCAA championship game in four years, ultimately losing 13–11 to

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

. At the end of the season, Danowski stood one win shy of 400 for his career. He signed a new contract with Duke that goes through 2023. The 400th victory for Danowski as a head coach came in the first game of the 2019 season against Furman, making him the third NCAA men's lacrosse coach, and first in Division I, with that many wins. The 2019 Blue Devils were the number two seed in the NCAA Tournament and made it to the semifinals for the 10th time in 13 seasons, where they faced Virginia. Duke lost a two-goal lead in the last minute, and a 13–12 defeat in double overtime left the team one win short of a second straight NCAA title game. Duke began 2020 by winning six of their first eight games, before the rest of the season was canceled because of the

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. In 2021, Duke made another NCAA Tournament as the second seed, reaching the semifinals before falling 14–5 to Maryland. Duke did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament in 2022. Danowski was inducted into the

National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame The National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame and Museum was founded in 1973. The mission of the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame is to recognize and preserve outstanding achievement by individuals of Polish heritage in the field of ...

on June 16, 2022.

United States men's national team

In 2015, Danowski was selected by

US Lacrosse USA Lacrosse is the national governing body of men and women's lacrosse in the United States. It provides a leadership role in virtually every aspect of the game and has more than 450,000 members throughout the United States, and offers programs a ...

to coach the U.S. men's national team at the

. The U.S. went undefeated in its seven games at the tournament, facing

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in the gold medal match. A goal with one second remaining by Tom Schreiber proved the margin of victory in a 9–8 win that gave Danowski's U.S. team the world championship. US Lacrosse announced in November 2018 that Danowski would coach at the upcoming World Lacrosse Championship, which would make him the first coach to lead the U.S. men's team in multiple world championships.

Family

Danowski is married and has two children. His father was

Ed Danowski Edward Frank Danowski (September 30, 1911 – February 1, 1997) was an American football player who played quarterback and halfback in the National Football League (NFL). He grew up in Aquebogue, his father, Anton, was a Polish immigrant. Foot ...

, a

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quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

. One of his sons is former Duke lacrosse player

Matt Danowski Matt Danowski (born August 12, 1985) is a former professional lacrosse Attackman who played in Major League Lacrosse (MLL) and the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) for 12 seasons. He finished his career with the Chrome Lacrosse Club, announcing his re ...

, who was named to the USILA All-American first team three times and is an assistant coach for the Blue Devils. When Danowski accepted the head coaching position at Duke, Matt was playing for the school. Later, Matt was a captain on Danowski's 2018 World Lacrosse Championship squad.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danowski, John 1954 births Duke Blue Devils men's lacrosse coaches East Meadow High School alumni Hofstra Pride men's lacrosse coaches LIU Post alumni Living people People from Bronxville, New York People from East Meadow, New York Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's lacrosse players