Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. New YSU men's basketball coach Ethan Faulkner speaks during his introductory press conference at the Beeghly Center on Wednesday afternoon.

YOUNGSTOWN — Dating back to his days as a high school basketball player, Ethan Faulkner had always dreamed about the opportunity of being a head coach at the Division I level.

Faulkner had a decorated career as a point guard at Northern Kentucky, and received his introduction to coaching as a student assistant and as an assistant coach under David Bezold with the Norse. Then he progressed as an assistant coach at Mount Vernon Nazarene and University of the Cumberlands, before finally arriving at Youngstown State in 2019 to join former head coach Jerrod Calhoun’s coaching staff.

“A couple of the biggest things that rubbed off on me about Coach Bezold, and probably what I learned more than anything, was what real toughness and real discipline looked like,” Faulkner said.

But now, Faulkner’s first head coaching opportunity is officially before him, as YSU introduced him as the program’s 14th head coach during a Wednesday afternoon press conference on Rosselli Court at the Beeghly Center.

“As a basketball coach, you prepare for this your whole life,” Faulkner said. “I was a realist with who I was as a player. I knew I wasn’t going to be playing professionally for an extended period of time, but I knew I certainly wanted to stay in the game. I’m going to surround myself with some really good pieces to help me navigate some of those waters that I haven’t been in. So we’re eager and we’re ready.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be the head coach of Youngstown State. I’m not big on making promises. I want to undersell and over-deliver, if you will. That being said, I give you my word that we’re going to work as hard as we possibly can every day to make sure that we continue to build upon the success that we’ve had here over the last seven years.”

During his introduction, Faulkner announced that his brother, Evan, the associate head coach at University of Pikeville (Ky.) and former Notre Dame College head coach and former YSU men’s basketball director of operations Mark Richmond would be joining his coaching staff in the coming days.

Danny Reese is also returning as an assistant coach after spending the last seven years as a special assistant under Calhoun.

“Our coaching staff, I hope by the end of the week, we’ll have all those positions finalized,” Faulkner said. “(Reese) has been a foundational piece of this coaching staff over the last seven years and he is certainly deserving of the promotion that he’s going to receive with us. He’s been great with me over the last 10-12 days really trying to stabilize things here and make sure we’re getting off to a great start in recruiting and with our current roster.”

The Penguins are in the midst of one of their most successful periods in Division I program history. So, maintaining continuity within the program was an important factor for Youngstown State.

“Jerrod was an attractive candidate last year and we had another successful year, so in my business, you need to make sure you have a backup plan,” YSU Athletic Director Ron Strollo said. “Really for the last 12 months, we knew that if Jerrod (got another job), this was the avenue that we were going to go. The landscape in our business has changed, and with the transfer portal and everything else going on, I think if you’ve got the ability to stay in-house, I think you need to do that. And that’s what we did.”

Faulkner’s relationships with the current players also played a significant role in his hire, Strollo said.

“Whether it was parents or current student-athletes, they wanted him to be our coach and that made it really, really easy,” Strollo said. “Clearly, you could see that relationship and trust with our student-athletes. Jerrod had a really big piece in explaining what was going on behind closed doors and how involved Ethan was with breaking down film, scouting and doing all that stuff. Then watching it during games, how much they communicated with each other, made it pretty evident that this was a great next step for (Faulkner) and his career.”

Strollo and YSU moved expediently with Faulkner’s hire once it became clear that Calhoun would receive and accept the job at Utah State. Strollo said he began “preparing a timeline” once Calhoun informed him he was leaving March 28.

On the morning of March 29, Strollo met with Calhoun, Faulkner and the team to inform them how things would be proceeding with the news of Calhoun’s hire set to break that evening. By the next morning, Utah State made Calhoun’s hire official. Then YSU officially announced Faulkner’s hire on April 1.

“From that point on, we were rolling with it,” Strollo said. “We didn’t make this move to keep the status quo. We’ve worked really hard and the community has supported us. We want to go to the NCAA tournament. So this job’s not done, to say the least. I think the reaction from our community financially here in the last 12 days has shown that everyone’s doubling down their support and their commitment to our men’s basketball program.”

During the press conference, Faulkner revealed that six players from this year’s roster, including junior EJ Farmer, freshman Christian Kirkland, sophomore David Wilkerson, sophomore Imanuel Zorgvol, freshman Dante DePante and freshman Gabe Dynes had all committed to return to the Penguins next season.

Faulkner noted Dynes’ importance to the roster, considering his breakout season as a shot blocker and post presence for the Penguins, and added that they plan to “build the roster around” the 7-foot-3 center with the seven remaining scholarships that the Penguins have.

“We’ve been a program that’s had really good guards and really good forwards, but we haven’t had anybody with his physical tools,” Faulkner said. “(We want to) utilize him some more and play through him some because I think he can have a big-time year for us as an all-league caliber guy.”

For Farmer, who was a sixth man this season for the Penguins and averaged 7.4 points in 19.1 minutes per game, the decision to return was simple considering the connection he built with Faulkner when he first transferred to YSU from Toledo last year.

“The relationship me and Coach Faulkner had before this even happened this past season and everything was amazing,” Farmer said. “It’s never changed with him. He’s been saying stuff to me here and there and making sure the guys that are returning are still comfortable.”

As for the on-court product, don’t expect much to change for the Penguins with Faulkner now in charge — “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” Faulkner said.

“We’ve been top-25 in the country in scoring two years in a row, and we made great strides defensively finishing second in the league in scoring defense last year,” Faulkner added. “Much of that will remain the same. We’re going to utilize our strengths and really recruit to the system that we have.”

CONTRACT DETAILS

Faulkner officially signed his contract Wednesday morning — a five-year deal through the end of the 2028-2029 season with a base salary of $275,000 per year, according to documents obtained by the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator in a public records request.

The contract includes $50,000 in marketing compensation, plus bonus incentives for accomplishments, including:

• $25,000 for Faulkner and $6,000 for assistant coaches for a first-place finish in the Horizon League

• $20,000 for Faulkner and $4,500 for assistants for second place

• $15,000 for Faulkner and $3,000 for assistants for third place

• $10,000 for Faulkner and $1,500 for assistants for fourth place

• $5,000 for Faulkner for fifth place

• $10,000 if Faulkner is named Horizon League Coach of the Year

• $15,000 for Faulkner and $3,000 for assistants for a Horizon League tournament championship and NCAA tournament appearance, plus an additional $10,000 for Faulkner and $5,000 for assistants per game played in the NCAA tournament

• $15,000 for finishing 1-50 in the NET rankings

• $10,000 for finishing 51-100 in the NET

• $5,000 for finishing 101-150 in the NET

• $2,500 for finishing 151-200 in the NET

• $25,000 for an Academic Progress Rate (APR) score between 930-950

• $35,000 for an APR score between 951-970

• $45,000 for an APR score between 971-990

• $50,000 for an APR score above 990

• $2,500 for an overall cumulative team GPA of 3.0 or higher

• $10,000 per team victory over any Power 5 schools (Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Big 12, Big East and AAC)

If YSU fires Faulkner without cause anytime before April 30, 2026, it would owe him an amount equal to his base salary times the number of years remaining on the deal, plus any and all marketing compensation or bonuses that had been accumulated. If Faulkner is fired after that date, the amount YSU would owe Faulkner drops to half of the base salary times the amount of time remaining on his contract.

Should Faulkner leave YSU for another job before March 1, 2026, he would owe YSU a buyout equivalent to his base salary times the number of years remaining on his contract. He would also owe the full buyout if he leaves for another Horizon League position at any point before the end of his contract term. If he leaves for a non-Horizon League school after March 1, 2026, he would not owe YSU a buyout.

Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.