Barainyak gets head football coach post at Widener
If you run into Mike Barainyak and he looks like he’s floating on a cloud, it’s because he is.
In the last two weeks, Barainyak became a father and a head football coach for the first time.
On Jan. 28, Barainyak and his wife, Erin, welcomed their son, Mike Jr., who they call Tripp, into the world.
“It’s a baseball thing,” Barainyak said in a phone interview. “It’s in honor of his great grandfather, who was a baseball player. He’s the third (Michael), like hitting a triple so we’re going to call him Tripp.”
Tuesday afternoon, after spending nearly two months as the interim head football coach at Widener, the university removed that tag and named Barainyak as the 25th coach in program history.
“It’s been a whirlwind month,” Barainyak said.
Barainyak (pronounced Bar-a-nak) replaces Mike Kelly, who was let go after a 4-6 season. Kelly went 35-19 in five seasons in Chester. That includes a
12-1 mark (9-0 Middle Atlantic Conference) in 2014, his first season, and a trip to the NCAA Division III elite eight.
“The university wanted to go in another direction,” Kelly said when reached by phone. “I’m grateful for my time there. I’m extremely proud of our 3212 MAC record and wish them the best moving forward.”
Barainyak is no stranger to Widener’s rich football history. He joined the staff as the offensive line coach in 2017 and was served as offensive coordinator/offensive line coach last season when Manny Matsakis left to become the head coach at Defiance College in Ohio.
The Pride ranked second in the conference in scoring (29.9 ppg) and fourth in total offense (345.0 yards per game) last season. As the offensive line coach, Widener allowed its fewest sacks in five seasons.
His ties to Widener, though, go back to his playing days at Delaware Valley.
“I’m beyond fired up for this opportunity,” Barainyak said. “It could not have come at a better time for me and my family. I’ve been blessed to work for a lot of great coaches, two of which are Widener grads.
“One is Coach (Bill) Manlove, who had so much success here and has been so instrumental as a mentor to me from my time at Delaware Valley, and then playing under Jim Clements, who’s now the head coach at Kutztown and is a Widener alum. It’s real special to me to take over a program that they cared so much about and know how much they care about me and try to make everybody proud.”
The 32-year-old Barainyak got his start coaching at Del Val, first as a student assistant and then as an assistant coach. He also was the video coordinator under Andy Talley at Villanova and spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Mary HardinBaylor in Texas where he helped the Cru win the Division III title in 2016.
He takes over a team that is coming off its first losing season since 2009.
“Being part of a national championship team, there’s nothing secret about what they do at Mary Hardin-Baylor, they do it every single day,” Barainyak said. “It’s consistency, consistency in the message from their coaching staff. They have consistency in the way they play. They have consistency in the way they work and that’s what we’re going to try to do here at Widener.
“We’re going to wake up every day and try to be consistent and we’re going to work every single day and we’re going to be consistent and we’re going to work extremely hard and we’re not going to have a fear of failure in our program. We’re going to attack our goals every single day and we’re going to work and work and work until we achieve them.”