Tuesday afternoon practice means drills, sweat and some listening. And when the program is Wiscasset Elementary School physical education teacher Daniela Marino’s new Bitty Ballers basketball, it’s also partly set to music and it’s an hour of fun.

Thirty-two girls in grades two through five have been meeting since Nov. 1. At the Nov. 22 practice in the WES cafeteria, most were smiling as they dribbled from one cone to another, tapping the top of each one they made it to and counting the number of taps for the round, with some players topping the 40-mark.

Marino did the exercise along with the players. Later in the one-hour session, she had them line up for dribbling relay races.

At one pause in the session, Marino, who played intramural basketball at the University of Maine at Orono, asked the girls if they were sweating yet. Several hands went up. She also gave out frequent praise, calling one student a rock star.

“She’s very encouraging,” WES administrative assistant Cindy Collamore said about Marino. Collamore’s granddaughter, second grader Charlotte Bickford, is in the group. “I think it’s a wonderful introduction to (basketball). Kudos to Daniela Marino for starting this fantastic program. Wiscasset’s always been a big basketball town, so I think it’s great to get them involved at this age.”

Plans call for performances at halftime of Wiscasset girls’ and boys’ varsity basketball games, when the group is ready. Marino said she envisions a dribbling routine. Students interviewed were looking forward to performing, and they said they like being in the Bitty Ballers. “I’m lucky,” Bella Orr said. “My dad plays basketball, so I want to be like him and play basketball a lot.”

“One of the things I like the most is the dribbling, because I know how,” Emma Pelletier said. “Dribbling is easy.”

Marino said what they’re working on each week will get them increasingly prepared for a halftime routine. “I’m having them dribble, put the ball around the waist, learning how to control the ball. Right now, we’re doing just the basic fundamentals.”

She got the idea for the program from fellow physical education teacher Lauren Brown’s Lady Dribblers at Boothbay Region Elementary School. Marino is trying to build the girls’ interest and skills in basketball early, in hopes the students will want to play in their middle and high school years. “The girls seem to be fully engaged and enthusiastic about learning the fundamentals for the game of basketball,” she said about how the program is going.

“I think that it’s a good experience for them,” said Jessey Marshall. Daughters Olivia, 8, in third grade, and Mya, 7, in second grade, are both in the Bitty Ballers. Their sister Latisha was also watching the practice. The Wiscasset Middle High School seventh grader plays basketball and said she thinks it’s good that her sisters get to.