The Wareham High School varsity football team is suiting up for the 2011 season with plans to bounce back from last year's rough record.

The team ended the season last year with a 1-10 record, but Coach Dan Nault said this season the team is stronger, more experienced, and ready to compete.

“I am hoping to learn from experience,” he said. “We are more competitive and we’re going for a spot in Conference Finals like we do every year.”

Nault said 80% of the team is comprised of returning juniors, many of whom played in starting positions last year.

“We are still a young team, but we are playing experience,” he said. “Our biggest strength is our skilled kids. They are young, but it is a talented group.”

Nault said his biggest concern is the thinness of the team’s line group and worries that injuries could put the Vikings in “serious trouble.”

Nault, who has been coaching at Wareham since 1994, said he has seen a lot of progress in the players, most whom began playing as freshmen. He is optimistic about this season and added that by next school year the team will have matured enough to make them an even stronger opponent.

“I'm very optimistic,” Nault said. “It is an experience for the group to build up.”

The team lost its first game on Saturday, September 10 against New Bedford by a score of 40-6. The team will next take on Fairhaven at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 16 at home.