Question Local 2 Player 2nd Player Selection

I have the new input system working and running fine at this point. The one item I'm having trouble finding information on is how to set up the player select screen so that I can have:

1. The 2P controller is only able to choose the 2P character area.
2. The 2P controller picks a default button to highlight.

I was thinking about doing something similar to my player objects and attaching the input to the object, then instantiating it when 2P is selected. If this is the right way to do it then I'm still unsure how to handle assigning a selected button and locking 2P down to only the buttons I want.

I have custom mappings for the playable characters, but I'm using the default UI options for going through the menus.