Every time he has been lost in life, Giovanni Bernard believed he would find his way.

``The one thing my nephew has always been is confident,'' Paul Bernard said.

``He was always very sure of himself even as a little boy. One day, we went to see his older brother play, and [Giovanni] promised me he knew how to get to the game. I think he was like 8 or 9 years old. He took me all the way down to South Miami. We never made it to the game.''

If you ask Gio Bernard's family, his coaches or his teammates at No. 1-ranked Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, he has been headed in the right direction ever since.

The 5-8 ½, 200-pound senior-to-be, a straight-A student, has turned into one of the nation's best running backs. Rivals.com and Scout.com both rate him in the top 25 at his position.

Bernard's 3.6 grade-point average and hunger for math and science is just as impressive to college scouts as how efficient Bernard is with the football in his hands. In three seasons at Aquinas -- where he has had to share the ball with other blue-chip recruits -- Bernard has averaged 7.97 yards a carry and scored 27 touchdowns on 315 carries.

DECEPTIVE SPEED

``The way he shifts his weight is pretty amazing,'' highly touted Aquinas cornerback Cody Riggs said. ``The thing about Gio is he might not be the fastest person, but that burst for the first 15, 20 yards is unreal. You take an angle on him, but you really don't know which way he's going to go. That low center of gravity makes him tough.

``You can run in there full speed, but the next thing you know he's got you on your back.''

Bernard said he has whittled 22 scholarship offers down to nine. The University of Miami, Florida State, Florida, Alabama, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Oregon State -- where his older brother, Yvenson, played -- are his finalists. But he said the state's big three are recruiting him the hardest.

He doesn't plan on picking a school until the end of the season, when he hopes to be leading the Raiders to another mythical national championship.

CHARACTER COUNTS

``I think he's special,'' said Charles Fishbein of Elite Scouting Services. ``Most of the great backs in the NFL -- Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith -- were all within that 5-8, 5-9 range. To me, he's very similar to [Baltimore Ravens running back] Ray Rice. He has a very powerful lower body, and he has great vision and is very explosive. But what everybody loves about him, really, is his character.''

That character really began taking shape, according to Bernard's uncle, after Gio's mother died from thyroid cancer when he was 9. Soon after, his father, Yven, lost the family business and their home, and at times he struggled to keep himself together.

While that was going on, Bernard and Yvenson, a star running back at Boca Raton High at the time, cooked, cleaned and often cared for themselves and their father.

``They had everything and lost everything,'' said Paul Bernard, who spends the offseason training his nephews. ``They had a big house in Boca [Raton], a Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, two dry-cleaning businesses. Then [Gio's] mother got sick and passed. A year later, it all started going downhill. My brother tried his best. But he could never catch a break.

``Something always went wrong. Gio felt the pain of his father. But he never lost his focus. He kept doing well in school.''

Bernard's older brother, meanwhile, became the focus of the family. But after earning All-Pac-10 first-team honors at Oregon State in 2006 and becoming the Beavers' second-leading career rusher, Yvenson went undrafted by the NFL. He now is on the practice squad of the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Gio Bernard said the success and struggles of his family have taught him to prepare for the tough times.

``My first goal in life is to make it without football if I have to,'' he said. ``Plan B for me is engineering or math -- definitely something involving science.''

``You can't take anything for granted because you don't know how things are going to be tomorrow. You have to live full speed every minute of your life and appreciate everything you have.''

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