The Youngstown State Penguins have three graduate players and four seniors, the rest are juniors, sophomores and freshman.

One of their key players is Garrett Covington, who is in his 6th year with the team. He is a six-foot-five guard from Carmel, Indiana. He started in 107 games in his career at YSU.

The Penguins other key player who is going to help light up the scoreboard is Adrian Nelson, a six-foot-eight forward from Columbus, Ohio. He transferred to YSU this year, and he came from Northern Kentucky University.

Coach Calhoune is excited for his best player to return for his 6th season.

“It was a really special moment when he called and said he was coming back. It was kind of a shocker… so I’m really excited to see what he does in his final year for sure,” says Calhoun.

Covington is in the 1,000 point club for the Penguins with 1,203 points.

Garrett feels like every year he comes back to play for the Penguins.

“I joke about it all the time that I’m like a relic here or something that doesn’t really go away,” says Covington.

Last season, Covington only played in 3 games because of an injury, but he still put up 31 points with those games.

Garrett has been with the team since the 2017-18 season, so he saw that the program had its ups and downs.

“But it’s kind of, it’s kind of cool to see the progression of a program and to see the development,” says Covington.

Both Garrett Covington and Adrian Nelson will help the Penguins to win games this year.