Thirty years ago, Tom Danosky was the quarterback at Allen Park. This fall, his son Easton will take over the same position for the Jaguars, giving Allen Park a rare father-son quarterback connection.
Allen Park is a big city with a small-town feel when it comes to football. From the city’s Bulldog program, which is always one of the best little league football programs in the area, all the way up to high school football with the Jaguars, you’ll find someone who played football in the city growing up.
However, in certain circumstances, you’ll find a family lineage of football players, and the Jaguars will have two generations of Danoskys on the sideline this fall as head coach and quarterback.
Under center for the Jaguars this season will be senior quarterback Easton Danosky, the son of former Jaguars quarterback and current head coach Tom Danosky, who was the quarterback for the Jaguars 30 years ago.
Easton Danosky isn’t new to the sidelines at Allen Park’s Marc England Field. It has essentially been a home away from home for the senior.
“I’ve grown up here,” Danosky said. “Marc England Field, the weight room, it’s been my childhood.”
He even recalled running around and hiding in wrestling mats while the football team was lifting in the weight room when he was younger. He was also the ball boy for the Jaguars before eventually making the varsity team as a sophomore.
As a sophomore, Danosky began his varsity career as the backup quarterback and spent the next two seasons waiting for his opportunity.
“Having to wait my turn as the backup quarterback my sophomore and junior years was definitely tough,” Danosky said. “Obviously I wanted to be out there helping my team, and sometimes it was hard watching from the sideline.”
But sitting and waiting taught Danosky something important.
“Those two years taught me a lot about being patient, staying ready, and supporting my teammates even when I wasn’t the one on the field,” he said.
He also had to learn how to navigate having his dad as his head coach.
“I had to learn how to separate being his son from being his player,” Danosky said. “Looking back, those years really helped me grow. I learned that just because your opportunity hasn’t come yet doesn’t mean you stop working for it.”
For Danosky, while he is the quarterback at Allen Park, he hasn’t stopped working. He is also a multi-sport athlete, playing baseball for the Jaguars and previously playing basketball for the school.
While he is still competing on the gridiron and baseball diamond, he isn’t battling on the hardwood anymore. Instead, he is battling something else.
Danosky, like many young athletes, is learning how to compete while managing Type 1 diabetes.
“It was very, very hard at first,” Danosky said of his diagnosis. “It was like you put so much effort and strength and time into gaining all this weight, preparing yourself for sport, and then it’s just gone like that.”
Danosky was candid when talking about his diagnosis. One day, he felt great. Then, during the spring of 2025, things began to change.
“One day I was feeling amazing, and then slowly over April and May, I just started, like, losing weight, not being able to eat,” Danosky said.
He described the experience as heartbreaking.
“I worked really, really hard and to just see it, like, lost like that in the matter of two months was really hard,” he said.
Once he was officially diagnosed and began using a pump and continuous glucose monitor, things became easier.
“Now that I’m officially diagnosed, and I have my pump and my CGM sensor. It’s a lot easier,” Danosky said.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t difficult days.
“With football, it really drops my blood sugar sometimes,” he said. “So there are moments where I do have to take a step away, drinking apple juice or just get some sugar in me.”
Each sport brings different challenges when it comes to managing his diabetes.
For football, Danosky typically tries to start with his blood sugar a little higher. Baseball is different depending on where he is playing. When he catches, he follows a similar approach, while pitching requires something different.
“Normally, I can chill around like the 120 mark because of my adrenaline when I pitch; it’ll normally increase my blood sugar a little bit,” Danosky said.
On his travel baseball team, he plays shortstop and monitors his blood sugar throughout the game to make sure he stays in a healthy range.
Being a high-level athlete can take a mental toll, and Danosky said managing Type 1 diabetes added another layer of stress. There are nights when his sensor wakes him up, and there are days when managing the disease can feel overwhelming.
“There’s a lot more negatives than positives,” Danosky said.
But he has learned to focus on what he can control and live his life as normally as possible.
For younger athletes who may face the same diagnosis, Danosky has a simple message.
“Never give up,” he said. “Diabetes makes you better in a way; it gives you structure and prepares you for the real world. But diabetes isn’t the end; it’s just the beginning.”
Now, Danosky enters his senior season as the starting quarterback for the Jaguars, 30 years after his dad held the same position.
For him and his family, it is a moment they have been waiting for.
“A lot of stress from my mom,” Danosky joked when asked what the season would be like.
But when it comes to playing quarterback for his dad, he sees the opportunity differently.
“I think it’ll be more exciting and everything,” Danosky said. “Not a lot of kids get to say they played quarterback for their dad in high school and got to spend those very memorable moments with their dad.”
The last time a Danosky was the quarterback, the Jaguars made it to the state semifinals.
Now, Easton has a chance to follow in his father’s footsteps while creating a legacy of his own.
“It would be like my dream come true,” he said.
For Easton Danosky, that dream has been years in the making.
“It’s been my whole life,” he said, talking about Allen Park football.
