Women’s basketball graduate guard Naelle Bernard exemplifies the three qualities head coach Allison Guth places at the center of the team’s ethos — head, hearts, and guts.
Women’s basketball graduate guard Naelle Bernard exemplifies the three qualities head coach Allison Guth places at the center of the team’s ethos — head, hearts, and guts.
When graduate guard Naelle Bernard first stepped on the court with the Loyola women’s basketball team Feb. 22, 2023, she delivered eight points in a 71-61 victory. But she wasn’t wearing the team’s colors, and the Ramblers added a loss to their season record after the game.
Bernard was playing with Atlantic 10 rivals Duquesne University and had just played her first of three matchups against the Ramblers. Her second time around, Duquesne served a first-round exit to the Ramblers in their first ever A10 conference tournament.
Bernard said it was her second season when she had a small conversation with head coach Allison Guth, putting Loyola on her radar. On the other end, Guth was engaging with someone she’d later describe as “an unbelievable talent.”
“Those three things, you know, when we talk about building our championship culture with — head, heart and guts — she personifies all of them,” Guth said.
Chicago has been another step in a long journey for the well-traveled Bernard. Born and raised in the 20th District of Paris, Bernard, along with her six siblings, grew up playing basketball as a result of her father’s enjoyment of the sport. She’s not the only player in her family, as her brother Joeris-Soa currently competes in the fourth-tier of the French basketball league system.
Bernard said she believes her siblings have provided her with a unique and lifelong support system.
“I don’t think I have a really normal family-lifestyle balance, but I feel like it’s my own,” Bernard said. “It works in its own way because my siblings have always been here for me and the people that have cheered me up.”
Bernard said she first became aware of the U.S. as a basketball option when, near the end of her high school career, one of her friends asked if she’d consider playing there. While mulling her friend’s offer, one of Bernard’s local Parisian coaches sent out several copies of her playing tapes to coaches in the National Junior College Athletic Association in America.
Bernard received several offers before making the decision to join Salt Lake Community College for the 2020-2021 season, a decision she attributed to their JUCO record and team composed of several French speakers.
Bernard spent her first six months in the U.S. quietly attempting to adjust to the American culture and language. Her first-ever stop within the U.S. was deep in the heart of Texas, where upon visiting South Plains College, said she was caught off guard by the presence of cowboys hats, leading her to realize the “States is everything that you would imagine it like on TV.”
After two solid years with Salt Lake and a diploma, Bernard said she received several offers from D1 schools that didn’t necessarily fit what she wanted.
“I was just looking at a conference that I liked, and I felt like the A10 was a good conference and a conference I could play in,” Bernard said. “I just started basically emailing to the schools I liked.”
On the other end of Bernard’s emails was Duquense’s women’s basketball associate head coach Vanessa Abel. Abel called Bernard back and extended an offer to her shortly afterward.
At Duquesne, Bernard was given the moniker of “Little Giant” — a nickname she continues to champion — and averaged 9.4 and 9.3 points in two seasons between 2022 and 2024. Her 2023-2024 season further demonstrated her ability to stretch the floor, as Bernard posted a .375 three-point field goal percentage, making her 13th in the A10 among competitors in that category.
Bernard, who has aspirations of continuing her career at a pro level, had the ability to play professionally in France right away after finishing the fourth year of her collegiate career, according to Guth.
“I think her coming here and wanting to bring her talents after winning 42 games in her last two seasons with Duquesne, you know, she’s a kid who is a winner,” Guth said. “I think she just impacts us in a positive way all around.”
Her decision to transfer to Loyola came after Bernard realized she wanted something different but liked the A10. Loyola’s coaching staff, who she described played “with heart and fight every time,” seemed fit the bill basketball-wise.
“When I entered the transfer portal, Loyola was the place that felt the most like home,” Bernard said. “The coaching staff really drew me here — very welcoming and just authentic people, and they were the most consistent.”
After just one visit — her “usual” approach to any offer — Bernard signed on to a team that was retaining only six of their previous season’s players. She quickly found herself in the starting lineup and is currently second on the Ramblers with a scoring average of 9.4 points.
In her pursuit of a master’s degree in marketing, Bernard continues to create, even when not on the court — particularly with video editing. She helped with the production of her friend’s YouTube channel “Icanplay,” which promotes women’s basketball in France to nearly 64 thousand subscribers, and she even starred in one of the channel’s short form documentaries.
Even some of the Loyola men’s basketball social media posts have her handwork in them, according to her.
Fellow teammate and graduate forward Sitori Tanin, who was involved in Bernard’s onboarding process with the team, said Bernard has helped the squad bond further with “really good tiramisu” and by co-leading a preseason slam poetry session.
What Bernard does that really raises the team’s energy, according to Tanin, comes after Bernard makes a bucket.
“I love her celebrations,” Tanin said. “Whenever she kisses her bicep, it just gets the team going.”
Bernard hopes to continue her travels after finishing at Loyola, but her journey from her Parisian roots to the Windy City already exemplifies the growth and maturity that’s already taken place, according to Guth.
“I think you’re just talking about someone who sacrificed a lot for it,” Guth said. “We just talked about, with our team the other day, life is full of like light and shadow moments. So the light of being able to explore the world. To be an adventurer and take chances and do this as a young person and leave far, far from home is so admirable.”
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