Former All-American Tomas Bernedo returned to the Bellarmine University men's soccer team as a graduate assistant prior to the fall 2021 season.
With Bernedo on board, the fall 2021 campaign saw Bellarmine win its first-ever game in the ASUN Championship as the Knights rallied to defeat FGCU 2-1 in the quarterfinals. Bellarmine spent five weeks in the Atlantic Region rankings. Three Knights were honored with ASUN All-Conference awards.
Bernedo competed for Bellarmine and Head Coach Tim Chastonay from 2016-19 and is one of the most accomplished players in program history. The native of Santiago, Chile, was a three-time All-GLVC selection, earning first-team laurels his final two seasons, and a two-time All-Midwest Region performer, receiving consensus first-team plaudits his senior season from the United Soccer Coaches and D2CCA. His distinguished finale with the Knights also included garnering the program’s first GLVC Offensive Player of the Year acknowledgement, and he was identified as a third-team All-American by the D2CCA. He was named to the program’s All-Decade Team.
Bernedo finished his career with 25 goals and 22 assists, the latter tying him for third in program history. His 35 points in 2019 tied for eighth all-time in a single season in program history and his 14 goals tied for 10th. Bernedo’s tally of nine assists his junior year is tied for fourth all-time. A four-year starter, he appeared in 70 games with 68 starts.
In addition to the heap of on-field awards, Bernedo was an exemplary student, earning United Soccer Coaches first-team Scholar All-South Region notice his final season while being an Academic All-GLVC mainstay.
Bernedo’s class was the catalyst for a remarkable rebuild. His freshman season Bellarmine went 6-8-4 overall and 5-7-3 in the GLVC. The Knights followed by going 11-5-1 (9-4-1 GLVC) in 2017, 12-5-2 (9-3-1) in 2018 and, finally, 16-1-5 (10-0-4) in 2019, the latter representing the most successful season in program history and included the program’s first GLVC Tournament title and NCAA II Tournament berth.
Bernedo played professionally with the Michigan Stars Football Club of the National Independent Soccer Association in 2020.
