Yvenson Bernard VAN-son(born October 25, 1984) is a former professional

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

formerly of the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

. He was signed by the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2008. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

. Bernard has also been a member of the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

Early years

Bernard was a four-year starter and played running back, fullback and

strong safety Safety is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety and the strong safety. Their dut ...

Boca Raton High School Boca Raton Community High School is a magnet high school that is part of the School District of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It has been rated an "A" school each consecutive year by the Florida Department of Education since 2005 and ...

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

. He led Florida's 5A football league in scoring his senior season with 19

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s, rushing for 1,156 yards on 159 carries (7.4 average). Bernard also played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and was selected in the 30th round of the 2003

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

Draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

by the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

. His younger brother is Giovani Bernard of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

College career

Bernard played as running back for

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

from 2004-2007. In 2005, Bernard took the position of starting running back for the Beavers. He ended the season with 1321 yards rushing on 299 attempts (averaging 4.4 yards/carry) and finishing with 13 touchdowns. Continuing in 2006, Bernard rushed for 1309 yards on 296 attempts (averaging 4.4) with 12 touchdowns. In the Sun Bowl he ran for the game-clinching 2-point conversion en route to an Oregon State 39-38 victory of the University of Missouri. As a senior, Bernard was named as co-

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

for the 2007 season. Despite having

arthroscopic Arthroscopy (also called arthroscopic or keyhole surgery) is a minimally invasive surgical procedure on a joint in which an examination and sometimes treatment of damage is performed using an arthroscope, an endoscope that is inserted into the jo ...

knee surgery on November 20 (and missing the Beaver's Civil War match against the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

), Bernard was able to play in the

Emerald Bowl The San Francisco Bowl was an annual postseason college football bowl game certified by the NCAA and played in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally named the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl during its first two editions from 2002 to 2003, it w ...

against the

Maryland Terrapins The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 19 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divis ...

. On 38 carries Bernard rushed for 177 yards and was awarded the 2007 Emerald Bowl Offensive MVP. For the season, he ended with 1214 yards rushing on 275 carries. Bernard ended with 3,862 career rushing yards, becoming the Beaver's second all-time leading rusher behind

Ken Simonton Ken Simonton III (born June 7, 1979) is a former American football running back who last played in the CFL for the Calgary Stampeders after a brief career in the NFL and the NFL Europe. Early life Simonton's family has a history of baseball. ...

with 5,044 yards. Bernard also moved to No. 6 in the

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

's all-time rushing list.

Professional career

Bernard became an undrafted free agent after college and was signed a few weeks later by the

. The Rams later released him before season's end. He was then signed by the

, who also cut him, leading him to sign with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He was released on July 16, 2009 but re-signed the next day to the

practice roster In sports, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. Frequently used in gridiron football, they serve as extra players during the team's practices, ...

. On February 17, 2011, he signed a two-year deal with the Montreal Alouettes. After his release from the Alouettes in July, Bernard was signed by the

on August 9, 2011.https://www.cfl.ca/article/riders-add-rb-bernard-to-practice-roster Riders add RB Bernard to practice roster

References

External links

Just Sports StatsOregon State Beavers bio

Early years

College career

Professional career

References

External links

Further reading