Lonowski ready to wrestle issues
Above: Sen. Dan Lonowski (left), in his final year as a wrestling coach, pauses for a photo with sons Nick and Derek at the 2025 Nebraska State Wrestling Tournament.
In a wooden stand on a table in Sen. Dan Lonowski’s office are miniature flags of the more than 20 countries that the freshman senator has visited.
Some flags represent countries like Spain, where he took several student groups during his 35 years teaching Spanish, the last 30 at Adams Central near Hastings, but most of them are from his equally long tenure with the National Guard.
The conversation piece is a tradition that started with his students. Lonowski would buy them a flag whenever they visited a new country and realized he should try it for himself. The Afghanistan flag holds particular importance to Lonowski, who was deployed in the country for a year during the war there.
His wife, Janet, made the flag stand, just one of many times she has stepped in with support. His careers meant being away from home frequently and Janet always had his back, Lonowski said, something he continues to be grateful for now that he’s spending so much time in Lincoln at the Unicameral.
“She’s a tremendous source of support and none of this is new for her,” Lonowski said. “With the National Guard, teaching and coaching — she’s taken on a lot over the years.”
There were plenty of upsides to such a busy life, though. The most important of them happened when the lines between home and work blurred.
Lonowski’s two sons Nick and Derek were student managers for the wrestling team in junior high and went on to be successful wrestlers during their high school years, with him as their coach, both of them winning state championships.
“That was the icing on the cake for me,” Lonowski said. “I got to spend time with my kids during the day. Most working parents don’t get to do that.”
He’s still grateful to have family nearby. All five of his children live in Nebraska, and Lonowski is now a proud grandfather of eight as well. All of which means more to him than being called a state senator.
“Dad and grandpa are my favorite titles I’ve ever had. Actually my grandkids call me Mocha,” Lonowski laughed. “They couldn’t say grandpa when they were little and when they finally could, I didn’t like it — so I told them, nope, it’s Mocha.”
As for taking the leap from a life as an educator and coach to state senator, Lonowski said he likes a challenge, especially if there can be a little fun thrown in the mix. During his time with the guard, for example, his favorite job was as a tank commander.
It was a challenging position to be in charge of 16 tanks, Lonowski said, but it wasn’t all serious.
“Roaming around the countryside in them was kind of like playing with big toys,” he laughed.
The District 33 senator is finding that life at the Capitol is also multifaceted. It’s a lot of work, Lonowski said, but doing hard things while also making time to build relationships is nothing new for him.
“The majority of people here are very friendly,” Lonowski said. “Even if they’re on the other side politically, we can find a way to get along and work together because we all want the same thing — to make life better for Nebraskans.”
