As the Waynesburg men’s basketball team prepares for the upcoming season, head coach Mark Christner has been preaching one consistent message at each practice early on in the new season.

“I want us to be the hardest working team on the court,” said Christner. “I want us to bring positive energy, trust each other and be disciplined.”

The Yellow Jackets are coming off of a 10-16 season last year including a 5-12 mark in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. They were a game above .500 at home, but just 2-11 on the road.

“We have talked about that a lot,” said Christner. “We want to hold each other accountable and play with a chip on our shoulder. If you aren’t ready to play game-in and game-out, you’re going to get beat.”

One thing that Christner has talked in length about through the preseason is being more consistent and making sure the guys have that sense of urgency each time they step on the court.

“We have to put in the hard work every day and trusting the process is important,” said Christner. “Our goal is to make it to the NCAA tournament and to do that we have to be unselfish, be locked in and be ultra-competitive.”

The Yellow Jackets return 11 players from last year’s team, including sophomore Matt Popeck, who was a standout offensive freshman a year ago that averaged 15.4 points per game, the sixth-highest mark in the conference. Popeck’s rookie campaign was good enough for him to be recognized as an All-PAC honorable mention.

“We have the talent here to be a very good team,” said Christner. “We brought in six newcomers. Jake Dougherty switched from football to basketball and is joining us this year [as a senior]. Aaron Novad, Zach Ford and Tyler Barry are talented freshman that will add some much needed depth in the post.”

The other two freshmen on the roster this year are guards Andrew Clark and Bryce Washington.

“I’m really pleased with how the freshmen are coming along early on in practices,” said Christner. “The energy has been good and there has been a fresh excitement and a lot of optimism.”

The Jackets will have three seniors on the team this year in Nate Gearhart, Clay Carper and Dougherty, who spent parts of four seasons as a quarterback on the Yellow Jacket football team.

“We thought we were better last year than our record showed,” said Carper. “That has created a sense of determination and we are going to come out swinging. We want to win the conference.”

Carper said that the team chemistry is evident with this group of players and he wants to do anything he can to help this team reach its goals.

“Everyone gets along on and off of the court,” he said. “We really trust each other. I just want to find out my role on this team and fulfill that role to the best of my abilities and be there every day to help this team win.”

The Yellow Jackets open the season on Friday, Nov. 16, when they travel to Hamburg, N.Y. to play in the Hilbert College Hawks Against Hunger Tip-Off Tournament.