He was educated at Malvern Preparatory School and West Virginia University, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi and graduated in 1994.

Bernotas discovered the sport by accident in 2001, after he got lost and ended up at the Lake Placid sledding track whilst driving through the Adirondacks.

[3] Bernotas competed in two Winter Olympics, earning his best finish of sixth in the men's skeleton event at Turin in 2006.

Bernotas earned a medical waiver to compete in the 2009-10 Skeleton World Cup season following a leg injury suffered during training.

[3] In March 2011 the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation announced that Bernotas had retired from the sport after a ten-year career.