BEAVER TOWNSHIP — The YSU men’s and women’s basketball teams were scheduled to open their seasons last night with new head coaches Ethan Faulkner and Melissa Jackson christening the renovated Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.

Faulkner, who was named the 14th head coach of the men’s program on April 1, is in his sixth season with the program but first at the helm, noting the time has now come to apply the hard work by players and staff from the offseason into game situations.

“We’ve really tried and I feel done a good job in developing our chemistry,” Faulkner told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s luncheon meeting at Avion Banquet Center. “When you have as many new guys as we have, that takes a little bit of time, but I think our guys have really grown close to one another. We have progressed a lot offensively and defensively and are just excited to see how that translates into finally playing someone else.”

Faulkner’s first roster features six returners and 10 newcomers, three players who will redshirt while one of the two 7-footers dotting his roster, junior Imanuel Zorgvol, will start the season out of uniform nursing a leg injury.

“I-man is going to be out for a while with a lower leg injury,” Faulkner said. “It is unfortunate for him and our team but you are going to see early on, as we have seen, the progress Gabe Dynes [7 foot, 3 inches] has made. He is a guy we are going to throw the ball to around the rim and will be one of the elite shot blockers in the country. He has really developed his game, we are super excited about where he is at and what he is going to bring to our team this year.”

The six returnees include E.J. Farmer, Dynes, Zorgvol, Dante DePante, David Wilkerson and Christian Kirkland.

“E.J. Farmer and Gabe Dynes both (were supposed to) start our season opener against Westminster, and I am excited about their development,” Faulkner said. “E.J. is certainly a guy that we are going to rely on to score for us, Gabe is going to bring a lot to the table along with our other returnees while our fans don’t know much about Christian Kirkland.

“With I-Man’s injury, Christian is set to play a bigger role and we are excited about how much he has improved over the last couple of months. He was a redshirt frosh last year while another redshirt freshman, Dante DePante, and redshirt sophomore David Wilkerson, who is coming off an injury last season, will certainly play meaningful roles for us.”

Integrating roster newcomers with returnees will be key early in the season as they prepare for Horizon League play.

“We have a bunch of newcomers with one of them, Jason Nelson, starting at point guard our first game,” Faulkner said. “He is a guy who can get other players involved while creating shots for them. Nico Galette comes to us with the most production of any of our guys in terms of what he has done at the Division I level and he has played really well.

“Juwan Maxey, Ty Harper, Cris Carroll and Siem Uijtendaal are also set to play significant roles while three players, Kevin Hamilton, Shaheed Solebo and Elijah Guillory, will redshirt.”

Rounding out the roster is sophomore Nik Hendrix, of Hubbard.

Getting everyone on the same page has been paramount for Faulkner and his staff.

“When you bring in so many new guys, it always takes longer to build that chemistry and to get the connection that you want on the floor,” he said. “With eight or nine guys, we have been trying to put a major emphasis on making sure they understand what we are trying to do offensively and defensively because they have come from different systems.

“Every coach that they played for may have a different coaching philosophy or style than we have, so it’s getting them to buy into what we are trying to do here, trying to break some habits — not necessarily good or bad habits — just different habits from the ones we are trying to instill in the guys here and getting that chemistry where it needs to be.”

The Penguins’ hoop success the past several years has created a scheduling challenge for Faulkner.

“What I don’t like about our schedule is when you have had the success that we have had the last couple years, it gets extremely difficult to put together a schedule,” he said. “I don’t like that we have only four non-league home games because we have created one of the best mid-major home court advantages in the country. To have just four of those opportunities was frustrating for me.

“That being said, I do think that we have been able to put together a schedule that is going to challenge us early and teach us what playing on the road looks like. With six of our first seven games being played away from home, it is going to prepare us for conference play, prepare us for tough, grind it out, hard physical games to win like those when get into the league. I am hoping that these early tests, whether they go good or bad, will give us a lot of teachable moments with our team.”

Next Monday, Dan Hiner, sports editor of the Vindicator and Tribune-Chronicle, will serve as guest speaker.