Mark Bernardino - Associate Head Coach - Swimming Coaches

Mark Bernardino

Title:
Associate Head Coach
Email:
pmbernar@ncsu.edu
Phone:
(919) 820-9009

Veteran Coach Mark Bernardino begins his seventh season as a member of the NC State Swimming & Diving Staff, exuding the same passion and love for the sport of swimming and its athletes that has been his staple throughout a 48-year coaching career.

Prior to joining the Wolfpack, Bernardino served as head coach at the University of Virginia (1978-2013), and associate head coach at the University of South Carolina (2014-2018). Bernardino is a 31-time ACC Swimming Coach of the Year, the most earned in ACC Swimming history. He led Virginia to 27 ACC team titles (16 men, 11 women), and eight top-10 NCAA finishes, highlighting a combined 26 finishes inside the top-25.

A long-time member of the USA National team staff, Bernardino has extensive experience at the international level, serving as head coach of the USA World University Games team in 2001 and 2009. As well as an assistant coach in the Pan American Games teams in 2011 and 2023. In 1993 he led the east team at the USA Olympic Festival and served as assistant coach for the 2000 USA Junior National team. Bernardino additionally served as head coach for Ecuador at the 2015 & 2017 World Championships and the 2015 Pan American Games.

NC State's distance swimmers have flourished under Bernardino’s guidance on both the national and conference levels during his time in Raleigh, earning NCAA and ACC conference titles, and many ACC All-American and all-conference accolades. Most importantly, these athletes have made significant point contributions to the Pack team efforts at both the conference and NCAA championship meets. During this time the Pack swim team has captured 6 ACC championships and secured 12 top 8 NCAA finishes including 2 top 4 finishes for the men and a national runner-up finish for the women (2021)

Some highlights from his time at NC State include: (2023) Coached Will Gallant & Ross Dant who placed 1st & 2nd in the 1650 free at the NCAA Championships. (2022) Men swept top 4 places in 500 free becoming ACC Champions. (2022) Coached Will Gallant and Ross Dant who placed 2nd & 3rd in the 1650 free at the NCAA Championships. (2019) Women Swept the top 4 places in the 400 IM at the ACC Championships. (2019) 3 women places top-5 in 1650 free at the ACC Championships

Bernardino has coached 5 NCAA Champion swimmers to 7 NCAA titles and 3 NCAA record performances. He has coached 5 USA Olympians, 4 of whom earned gold medals. He has coached at least one NCAA or USA Swimming National Champion in each of the past four decades in his tenure, as well as coached either a USA swimmer or an international swimmer to the Olympic games from 1996-2020 (7 Olympians).

He has coached over 120 first-team NCAA All-Americans, one individual world record holder, 26 ACC Swimmer of the Year honorees, and 16 ACC Freshman of the Year winners. His athletes have captured over 180 ACC titles and Six SEC golds.

Coach Bernardino has been inducted into numerous halls of fame including The American Swim Coaches Association, the International Swim Coaches Association, the University of Virginia Swimming Hall of Fame, The Delaware Country (PA) Sports Hall of Fame, Cardinal O’Hara, and the International Swim Coaches Association (ISCA) Hall of Fame. He also served as president of the CSCAA from 2010-2012 and was on the CSCAA Executive Board from 2010-2014.