National recognition for Baranik

Courtesy photo

Joe Baranik

By John Hartsock

jhartsock@altoonamirror.com

It was probably destiny that Joe Baranik would make the sport of wrestling his life’s passion.

Baranik, who won a District 6 Class 3A wrestling championship as an Altoona Area High School senior in 1978, grew up in a large family with four other brothers who also competed in wrestling.

“People in my family always said that I had wrestling on the brain, but that became a good thing,” said Baranik, who chuckled that he was enrolled in a basketball clinic for fifth graders as a youngster but was immediately directed to attend his school’s elementary wrestling clinic after tackling a basketball player in a game.

“I love the sport of wrestling — it’s a passion for me,” added Baranik, 64, who has spent his past 42 years in coaching the sport — including a seven-year stint as a head coach at Hollidaysburg Area High School in the late 1990s. “I’ve been involved in other sports, but what I’ve always liked about wrestling is that you control your own destiny.”

Baranik’s destiny has taken him to a special place in the sport. He was recently notified by officials at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla. that he will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted into the Hall’s Pennsylvania chapter for high school and college wrestling for his contributions in helping to grow the sport.

Baranik, who is also a junior high school science teacher and who recently accepted a position as the head wrestling coach at Albemarle High School in Charlottesville, Va., will be recognized with the Hall’s Lifetime Achievement Award in a ceremony that will be held on April 25, 2025 at the Hershey Convention Center.

He will be one of six Pennsylvania residents inducted into the Hall in different categories. Baranik was nominated for induction by a committee of people from all over the state of Pennsylvania who have an association with the sport of wrestling, and who sent the relevant information about Baranik to the Hall of Fame headquarters three years ago.

“I’m excited, I’m happy, I’m honored,” Baranik said of his recognition. “There are certainly a lot of other deserving people besides me who never got nominated for induction. I was surprised when I was notified this year.

“I was nominated three years ago, and when I didn’t get in for a couple of years, I just figured that I wasn’t going to get in, that I was going to get passed over,” Baranik said. “Then all of a sudden, I got a call this year.”

Baranik’s credentials certainly make the recognition a well-deserved one. He has had several coaching stops over the past four decades, including starting the NCAA Division II St. Andrews University of Laurinburg, N.C. wrestling program from scratch and directing that program for 13 seasons.

He was also an assistant coach under the legendary Gray Simons at Division I Old Dominion University in Virginia for three years. Baranik will join his former coach at Altoona Area High School, the late Marty Rusnak, in the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Hall of Fame, which is located near Oklahoma State University.

“There will now be plaques there with both my name and Marty’s names on them,” said Baranik, who also wrestled collegiately on the NCAA Division I level at Lock Haven State University. “That’s kind of neat.”

Baranik also launched the Pennsylvania Wrestling Magazine, which has been in publication for the past three decades and has subscribers in 23 states. The publication began as a modest newsletter, but has since evolved into a large glossy magazine that includes monthly reports from all the high school districts in the state of Pennsylvania, as well as news about various college programs.

“I started the magazine to promote the sport, and to let people know about all the history surrounding it,” said Baranik, who pointed out that several United States presidents and other celebrities competed in wrestling as young athletes. “When I started the magazine, I thought that we’d get a couple subscribers from outside the state, but now we have them from Maine, Florida … all over the place.”

One of the state’s other amassadors for the sport, Lock Haven resident Tom Elling, has known Baranik for nearly five decades and has seen first-hand his impact on the sport. Elling, former head wrestling coach at the old Lock Haven High School, and former long-time director of the Northwest Class 3A Regional Wrestling Tournament that is held annually at Altoona High School, was also a recipient of the Hall of Fame’s Lifetime Achievement Award back in 2007.

“I got to know Joe when he wrestled for Lock Haven State University,” said Elling, who now produces the Pennsylvania Wrestling Handbook — an exemplary encyclopedia-type resource on the sport in this state. “Joe was nominated and selected for his lifelong commitment to wrestling and Joe has been a leader throughout his career in wrestling as a competitor, coach and contributor.”

Baranik and his wife, Roberta, are the parents of an adult son and daughter, and last year, became grandparents for the first time.

“Fortunately and thankfully, I have a wife who also loves the sport, and that helps,” said Baranik, who pointed out that his wife has been supportive of all of his many career stops.

“But she said that we’re winding down now, and this will be our last move,” he added with a chuckle.