Laura Beeman won’t wait long to test the resolve of a young Hawaii roster.

Preparations for Beeman’s fifth season as Rainbow Wahine basketball coach begin in earnest this morning in UH’s steamy Gym II with the first full practice of the year, and she plans to push the youngsters right from the start.

“It’s going to be really just evaluating how the girls handle the expectations first off. Second, it’s going to be how they handle the intensity of a 2 1⁄2-hour practice,” Beeman said.

“Gonna find out a little bit about who can get it together at game time, because that first practice isn’t going to be ‘Let’s ease into things.’ It’s going to be, ‘Here we go,’ and I want to see who can handle that intensity.”

The Wahine return five players who contributed to a 21-11 season highlighted by a Big West tournament championship and the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance in 18 years, and nine newcomers have joined the roster since the final buzzer at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion in March.

Experience is weighted heavily to the backcourt, where the Wahine return Briana Harris, the team’s lone senior; junior Sarah Toeaina and sophomore Olivia Crawford. Toeaina and Crawford both started 20 games last season, while Harris averaged 8.4 points as the first guard off the bench for much of the season.

Sophomore twins Leah and Lahni Salanoa, both forwards, also return after seeing spot duty as freshmen.

“Those five young ladies absolutely have to be our foundation,” Beeman said. “They have to be the glue in certain defensive rotations, and when we’re running offensive sets and we need to get scores they have to be the ones we’re looking to.”

The youth movement is most pronounced in the paint, where UH lost all five post players due to graduation or transfer and five freshmen are projected to comprise this season’s rotation.

“The good thing is we’re going to represent the way we’ve always represented, play hard, do things the right way,” Beeman said. “We just aren’t going to have the experience up front as some of the teams we’re going to play early on will have.”

Beeman also will have a new-look coaching staff to work with after the summer additions of assistants Calamity McEntire and Brad Langston, and Alex Delanian’s promotion from assistant to associate head coach.

While the team’s youth presents a challenge, Beeman — who holds two master’s degrees in education — is looking forward to the teaching process when the Wahine report to the gym today.

“How to motivate may be different … but as a coach you’re a teacher,” Beeman said. “When you get on the floor it’s your ability as a coach to paint that picture so that your players can see what it is you want, understand the expectations, and what process it is to get there.”

Beeman is entering the final year of a contract that runs through next June and she’s confident an extension will be completed in a timely manner.

“What I say all the time is I trust (athletic director) David Matlin,” Beeman said. “I trust where we are in our negotiations — it’s not even in my mind. I can’t even say it’s in the back of my mind. I know that he has shared that he wants to extend me. I have shared my desire to stay. I know at this point it’s going to happen, it’s going to be fair and I’m not worried about it.”

The Wahine are scheduled to make their Stan Sheriff Center debut in the Green and White scrimmage on Oct. 21 and face UH Hilo in an exhibition five days later. They open the season with a two-game road trip to take on USC on Nov. 11 and Cal State Bakersfield on Nov. 13.

Notes

Two of the newcomers, guards Tia Kanoa and Rachel Odumu, will redshirt this season as transfers. … Center Adrienne Darden, a 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman, was a mid-year transfer to UH last spring and will be eligible in December after final exams for the fall semester.