The basketball season is underway and the next generation of Wareham High School Vikings took to the courts to hone their skills not as Vikings, but as Tigers.

The Wareham Tigers Athletics Association is the town's youth athletics organization with football, basketball, cheerleading and wrestling teams. Two Tigers boys basketball teams played their first games of the season at Wareham Middle School Sunday, Dec. 8.

The Tigers basketball program has teams for grades four through eight. The first team to play on Sunday was a team of sixth graders.

The sixth graders took on Bourne in their first game of the season, securing a six point win in a game that came down to the wire in the final minutes, ending in a 40 to 34 Wareham victory.

"I feel like we have a promising team right now," said Head Coach Juni Suarez. "This was our first game so now we gotta work on what we've been working in practice."

Suarez added his team has been focusing on improving their defense, conditioning and making sure they know their plays but he has high expectations for his team.

"I think we're coming for that championship," said Suarez.

Suarez said he coached many of these same kids last year and he is proud to see how they have grown.

"They get better every single day and for most of these kids, last year was their first year and it's great to see them reach their potential," said Suarez.

The second and final game of the day was played by a team of Tiger seventh graders against Bourne's seventh graders.

The Tigers took the win by a score of 39 to 22 in a strong defensive game from both sides.

"I thought it was a good first game," said Head Coach Valentino Pina.

Pina added that moving forward, he wants his team to continue to work hard and support each other day in and day out as they prepare to potentially try out for the freshman team in high school next year.

Pina, a former Viking basketball player, said his team didn't start playing organized basketball until they were in fifth or sixth grade due to the COVID-19 Pandemic but he aims to help the kids develop over the course of the season to get them ready for high school basketball.

"We want to work on the fundamentals and spacing the floor," said Pina. "We want them to learn different offenses and defenses and playing basketball the right way."

Suarez said getting the kids ready for high school is also a goal of his.

"High school is a lot about help defense and we try to teach them that foundation," said Suarez. "We try to get them playing all year round, going to the YMCA, getting shots up, working on their craft and building a leadership mindset," said Suarez.