Bernard Visits ND, Rehabs

St. Thomas Aquinas running back Giovanni Bernard has been on three of his five official visits, Tennessee, Oregon, and Notre Dame, the Irish being his most recent. The 5-foot-9, 195-pounder says he will hold off on any more visits until the completion of his senior season, but his recent trip to South Bend, Indiana went well.

“It went great it was a good visit,” said Bernard of Notre Dame. “The atmosphere was great, everything about it you can’t not like everything about it. I enjoyed everything.”

Bernard states Miami, Florida State, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Alabama, Oregon State, and Nebraska are the schools he is looking at currently. He has also said in the past that he will not take official visits to in-state schools due to the fact he already had a good grasp on what each campus and program offered. When asked if he still planned to stick to that logic for his final two visits, Bernard left the possibility open.

“Possibly, possibly not now because some of the out of state schools I kind of did my research on them and it didn’t work out too well. So we’ll see, not for sure yet.”

With Notre Dame being the last visit for several weeks and Bernard putting the recruiting process on hold for the time being, he has a nagging hamstring injury that is getting his attention now.

“I’m just trying to really focus on this injury and truly trying to get it better, rehabbing it,” explained Bernard who states he will probably miss another two or three weeks.

“Basically, fluid gathered up in it and I had to get it removed and get it drained out. It’s still in the healing process because I’ve had it done to both of them.”

The focus may currently be on rehab, but the bigger picture has Bernard and his St. Thomas Aquinas teammates shooting for another National Championship if they continue on their winning ways. Bernard is excited about those prospects, but more so for his new teammates that have yet to experience that feeling.

“You know it’s great, because there are a lot of new players on the team and just trying to help them out and feel what we felt last year winning a national championship. It’s a great feeling and you just want every other player to have that joy and have that feeling of being called national champs.”

St. Thomas Aquinas finishes the regular season playing McArthur, Deerfield Beach, South Broward, and then Cypress Bay on national TV.