Up for the Task: Resolve part of LCA’s Christian Bernard’s Journey to become Ragin’ Cajun

by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

The past struggles paved the way for moments like this.

When Lafayette Christian Academy’s Christian Bernard was tasked with playing up three years in age with Team94’s U17 AAU team, there wasn’t an immediate return on the investment. In fact, there were difficult times that occasionally knocked him out of the team’s starting lineup and onto the bench, searching for answers that would later become more evident.

The team’s coach, Amber Gregg, always believed Bernard could play at such a stage, gaining a level of confidence that’s helped catapult the point guard to meaningful minutes with the team, a starting position on his high school team, and now an opportunity to play in college.

Bernard, a 5-foot-8 senior, committed to continuing his career at home at the University of Louisiana, a destination he’s not certain he would have reached without Gregg’s support.

“She’s a blessing in my life,” Bernard said. “I’m small now, imagine when I was 14 playing against those big guys. She really believed in me, saw the vision since I was young. She invested a lot in me, and I really appreciate her so much. She’s played a big factor in me being the player that I am today. Not just the player, but the man that I am.”

Bernard looks forward to his second full season leading the LCA team, which was eliminated in the regional round of last year’s Division III select playoffs. He averaged 6.5 points in 29 games with 2.0 assists and 2.0 rebounds for the Knights, the District 6-2A champions.

“I’m super excited for him to have the opportunity to play at that level,” LCA coach Jacob Broussard said. “He’s super fast. That ability allows him to make the other guys better on the floor. He thrives on getting downhill, making two (players) guard him, and he can find the open guy and keep the possession moving.”

Bernard, an honorable mention all-district selection, can’t look ahead to his final season of high school basketball or his future in college without tracing his steps back to Gregg.

Bernard’s actually played up in age for the past three years with Team94 and is a 17-year-old senior. He experienced rather forgettable moments, turning the ball over more than putting it through the basket at times, which reduced him to a spectator’s role on the bench.

Through it all, though, Bernard never lost confidence in himself, his passion for the game, or his work ethic.

“At times I had terrible games and had to watch people play in front of me,” he said. “It was a process. I wasn’t always the best player, and even now I’m still not that. At the end of the day, I’m a great worker. I’m very determined. I’m going to do whatever I can to show that I can be that guy on whatever team that I’m on, no matter the age or size. It doesn’t matter.

“She put me in that position when I was so young, where I didn’t really see it at that time,” he said. “It was a rocky road, a lot of ups and downs. A lot of times, I wanted to move down to my regular age group, but she never let me settle for less. Now, playing at the level that I’m playing at, and being able to blow past guys and be physical and get to the rim, it shows why she had me playing so high up in age group at that time.”

Broussard, a former preferred walk-on for the Ragin’ Cajuns, explained Bernard’s path to the playing floor was filled with patience and learning.

The Knights had a senior-laden team, led by current Kentucky Wildcat Kam Williams, during Bernard’s sophomore season. That younger group set a precedent for working while you wait, and Bernard’s now part of a junior-senior team that’s ready to reap the rewards of their perseverance.

“They were on that team that didn’t get to play a ton of minutes,” Broussard said of many members of this year’s team. “It helped all those guys, the guys now in our locker room, that’s juniors and seniors. They got to be around some good dudes.”

Bernard, the son of recording artist Bryson “Cupid” Bernard, who released the Cupid Shuffle in 2007, gravitated toward basketball when he was 3 and hasn’t backed down from the challenges along the way.

He’s never allowed his size, a deterrent in the eyes of some, to become a detour and instead it’s served as a driving force and elevated his competitiveness.

“Being a smaller guy has been the main thing people notice when they first look at me,” Bernard said. “It makes me play with a chip on my shoulder, gives me a lot of motivation to work 10 times harder than the people around me. It’s just proving myself right, that I can compete with guys on a higher level that are way bigger than me.”

Bernard was playing in an AAU tournament this summer in Wichita, Kansas, where Ragin’ Cajuns’ first-year coach Quannas White was in attendance. 

He said he sent out film to prospective college coaches and heard back from White, who invited him to campus to watch a practice, meet the coaching staff, and this year’s team.

“I loved what I saw,” he said.

It was the foundation Bernard needed in building a case for his future home. He also visited Texas-San Antonio, where Gregg is an assistant for the women’s team, along with Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas, and Baton Rouge Community College, where former Ragin’ Cajun Byron Starks is the head coach.

White, a native of New Orleans, took over UL’s program after serving for eight years under head coach Kelvin Sampson at the University of Houston. The Cougars made seven trips to the NCAA Tournament and were in the Final Four in 2021.

“Coach Quannas is a great guy, and I appreciate him and the staff for seeing something in me and giving me this opportunity,” Bernard said. “It brings me relief knowing that I’ve made that decision. I don’t have to worry about proving anything to anybody that I can play at a higher level. It’s working on myself and do what I need to do to get to this next level.”

Another summer of competitive competition, coupled with his offseason work in the weight room and gym, has Bernard primed for a successful senior season. The Knights open the season at home on Nov. 24 against Northside.

“Being a leader, I want to facilitate and get us to be where we should be at all times and just be an extension of coach on the court,” he said. “I can score the ball, but that may not be what we need at all times. Just doing what the team needs to win is the main thing.”

“I’m a high percentage 3-point shooter,” he said. “Most of the time, I’m getting our offense where it needs to be, driving and facilitating. If the ball comes back to me behind the 3-point line through the offense, then it’s going in. I can guarantee it.”