The Wareham High School boys volleyball team did more than workout before the start of the 2013 season. The boys worked their tails off just so they could have a season.

After the program was cut last year due to budget constraints, Coach Ben Kaeterle and his team of dedicated players came together to raise the money needed to fund the season.

"I'm ecstatic," said Quintin Silveira, who will serve as a tri-captain on the team. After going 0-18 last year, he says the team members are out to prove they can be contenders.

"Obviously, we want to make the [state] tournament ... to make it a team that isn't a joke," said Silveira.

Another tri-captain, Nate Chagnon, wasn't quite so blunt in his assessment, but echoed the sentiment that these boys are out to prove something. His goals for this season are simple: "Just work hard, and prove to everyone who donated that it was worth it."

At the boys' first practice on Saturday, March 23, Kaeterle said that with only one varsity player returning to the team this year, younger and less-experienced guys are already stepping up.

"They're learning on the fly," he said of the newcomers, "and the rest, I'm trying to bring up to varsity level."

One way he tries to raise the level of play is by bringing in Wareham High School players who have graduated, and can really test the mettle of the younger players. It's a tactic that Kaeterle says his coaches at New Bedford High School, where he was once a volleyball player, used.

Kaeterle says that while the team may not have had any wins last year, it had enough games where the boys fell just short of victory to give him optimism about the upcoming season.

"I'm going to play the most experienced team I have," said Kaeterle. "A team that can hustle, and that's intense."

The boys take on Brockton for their first game on Thursday, April 4, at 4:30 p.m.