Jake, Jesse and Jared Bernhardt didn’t have many options for playing lacrosse as elementary school kids living in central Florida. Unlike the sport’s hotbed areas in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Long Island, the Bernhardt’s Orlando home had few organized leagues and little coaching experience.

Former Maryland men’s lacrosse coach Dave Cottle, however, started a lacrosse camp about 15 minutes from the brothers’ home when Jake was 9 years old and Jesse was 8. Their dad, Jim, who played two years of lacrosse at Hofstra and two years at Towson, signed the kids up each year.

“Our lacrosse season consisted of those three days of camp,” Jake said.

While the brothers later joined a league and rocketed up the sport’s ranks, they never lost touch with Cottle, who recruited them to the Maryland program. Meanwhile, the youngest Bernhardt, Jared, mirrored his brother’s ascent and will continue the family’s Terp tradition as a freshman on the team this season.

“It’s literally the meaning of coming full circle,” Jake said.

The third Bernhardt career will begin when Jared moves to College Park during the last week in August. He admitted he’s anxious to start adjusting to his new home and program, but he got a head start connecting with one teammate earlier this month.

Bernhardt was member of Team USA in the FIL U-19 World Championships — helping his team win gold as the tournament’s MVP — and played with rising sophomore faceoff specialist Austin Henningsen. The two spent time together on the field, during bus rides and at team dinners.

“Jared is a very, very good athlete. He runs like a deer and can really fire the ball,” Henningsen said in a release. “I just can’t wait for him to come to Maryland and play with us because he’s a phenomenal player and athlete.”

But the Bernhardt lineage dates back to 2009, when Jake arrived in College Park as a midfielder. Jesse, a longstick midfielder, joined him a season later. Jake stayed for a fifth year after suffering an injury as a senior, and the duo served as captains in 2012 and 2013.

After they left Lake Brantley High School, their father started the Bernhardt Lacrosse camps to grow the community’s involvement in the sport.

The program hosts a camp each summer and a preseason clinic in the winter for kids in third through 12th grade. The workouts focus on fundamental skills, such as throwing, catching and ground balls, and technical instruction for coaches.

While Jake, who now serves as the director, and Jesse would come back for each session, Jared grew up participating in the camps.

“We always kind of made him play up,” Jesse said. “So if the age limit was like third grade to start, he probably started when he was in first or second.”

After coaching Jared and his teammates at these camps during elementary school, Jake has also served as Lake Brantley’s varsity coach the past two seasons. He admitted it was special to watch his brother’s class graduate this past spring, and he’s excited for the start of Jared’s college career.

Despite having a chance to play football at Navy, Jared turned it down and committed to coach John Tillman’s group early in high school.

After all, Jared spent years visiting his brothers in College Park. The Florida lacrosse season ends earlier than Maryland’s, so Bernhardt could travel to many of his brother’s games, either alone or with his parents.

When the Terps played on Saturdays, Bernhardt would fly to Maryland on Friday and spend the day with the team. He would watch practice while listening to the coaches’ instruction, hang out in the locker room and sometimes sit in on meetings.

Afterward, he would tag along for the team dinners on Route 1 and spend time in his brothers’ apartment with their teammates.

“I remember when I was younger just nagging my brothers,” Jared said. “I always wanted to hang out with them and the players.”

And in the fall, when Jared joins Maryland as a rookie, he’ll be able to form the same types of bonds his brothers did during their tenures with the Terps.

“He can definitely see and sense our passion for Maryland because of our friends that we’ve made that are his friends now,” Jesse said. “It’s exciting, and it’s a little bitter sweet. He hasn’t even started yet, but at the end of the road there for him, he will be the last Bernhardt to go through.”