After 31 years at the helm of the St. Clair College men’s soccer program Mike Baraslievski has decided to call it a career. “Mixed feelings,” Baraslievski told Powerplay Sports. “You do it for so long it becomes part of your routine and now it no longer is. Gonna have to come with a different routine.”
At the helm Sonce 1992, Baraslievski guided the Saints to 174 wins, 24 playoff appearances and three West Divison titles. He was also voted West Division Coach of the year eight times by his peers. “Did we accomplish everything we wanted to at all times. Definitely not. Did we do everything we could. I believe in a lot of cases we did better than we could.” Baraslievski said.
He also coached the men’s indoor soccer team for fifteen years leading St. Clair to back-to-back silver medals in 2016 and 2017. No one has coached longer than Baraslievski in the 57-year history of the college. “We wish Mike all the best,” said Reid Innis, director of recreational services. “The program will continue on, obviously, and we hope to build on the foundation that he established over 31 years.”
Training camp begins in 45 days but Innis says the college wants to focus on Baraslievski’s legacy at St. Clair. “We want to allow him the right amount of spotlight that he’s earned over 31 years and make it about him and not what the future holds.”
As he reflected on his time at St. Clair, Baraslievski said one of the moments he’ll cherish is helping the team end with a podium finish last fall when the Saints hosted the CCAA Championships. St. Clair earned the programs’ first ever national medal finishing third.
Baraslievski would have preferred gold but he says the big win for him are the relationships he forged throughout the years with coaches, faculty, administration and most of all his players. “I still, going around town, run into kids that played for us 25-30 years ago and say ‘hey coach how you doing, nice to see you’”.
