You can't judge a book by its cover, and the same could be said about the Batavia wrestling team and its 1-9 start to the season.

The Bulldogs are still adapting to first-year head coach Ben Morris. The team is young and inexperienced in high school competition. There's still a void to fill, with the loss of five sectional qualifiers a year ago, including Logan Arlis. Holes in the lineup this winter have caused the team to forfeit a handful of matches per meet. The team has been hampered by a lack of facilities: The team didn't have its wrestling room in place at the beginning of the season. And, then, there's the schedule: It's definitely not the cupcake variety. The Bulldogs have faced some of the best teams in the state, including Glenbard North, Lyons Township, Sandburg and defending Class 3A state champion Minooka.

But even with all of the changes and challenges this season, the Bulldogs are finding ways to put things together, and are 3-0 in dual meets since Dec. 8. They also had good showings at a pair of tournaments leading up to winter break.

"You start out with a brutal early schedule facing the best, because we literally faced the best," Morris said. "And then you realize that you don't get down on yourself and go into these other tournaments and there's a big drop-off after those top five (teams). We're somewhere in that bottom 20 and there are lot of teams that would get hammered by those teams, too."

Batavia got things going on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9 when on back-to-back nights the Bulldogs beat up on East Aurora and Larkin. The Bulldogs handled the Tomcats, 64-12, and the Royals, 66-12.

An even biggest boost to the young Bulldogs took place on Dec. 11 in the 38^th Annual Downers Grove South Mustangs Invitational. Batavia captured third place in the tournament, behind only the high-caliber programs of Hinsdale Central and runner-up Downers Grove North.

The Bulldogs came away with two individual championships at Downers Grove South. Joey Shump beat Downers Grove South's Frank Wenmouth in the title match at 112 pounds and Augie Watson won by technical fall at 1:58 over Rockford Boylan's Austin Smith at 152 pounds.

"We've had some guys step up recently and have had kids place in tournaments who had never placed before," Shump said. "It's been good. Wee've had to fight hard this season and hopefully we can continue."

Batavia also received a second-place finish from freshman Laren Eustace at 140 pounds, third-place finishes from Anthony Scaccia (130), Dylan Findley (160) and Mickey Watson (171), as well a handful of fourth-place efforts from Charlie Smorczewski (119), Jake Schulz (125), Steve Cherry (135) and Cullin Rokos (189) in the Downers Grove South Mustangs Invitational.

"We've been feeling pretty good, especially in performing well as a team with a lot of talented kids and still not all the spots filled up," Augie Watson said. "I don't think anyone has give up many points or tech falls or pins. Most have been close decisions and we've got the needed points as we've needed to."

Elgin proved to be the Bulldogs' latest victim in dual meet action, as Batavia won its third straight with a 47-24 decision on Dec. 16. Steve Cherry, Laren Eustace, Jake Schulz and Joey Shump all won via pins to lead the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs competed for their last time in 2010 on Dec. 18 in the Glenbrook South tournament. Shump, Schulz and Watson all headed home with third-place medals to lead the Bulldogs to a sixth-place finish.

"We have a lot of things we want to accomplish, so we're not happy," Morris said. "We don't like taking sixth in tournament, we'd like to be first, but at the same time, winning isn't everything, but the effort and process to get there is. I don't think we're there yet. We're still trying to build the learning how to win thing and that's going to take time."

While the Bulldogs are seeing some success in the form of team victories and finishing closer to the top than the bottom in their two December invitationals, they are by no means close to where they hope to be come January and beyond.

"We're not happy, but we're not unhappy either," Morris said. "They're learning me and the nice thing with these two weeks (over winter break) is that it's two weeks of my technique and showing some of the things I want them to do and the program to do in the long term. We didn't get an opportunity to do this without having the wrestling room. Only having the wrestling room every other day in early season, we didn't get in nearly the amount of technique that I wanted to."

Morris has already seen some of his wrestlers begin to implement some of his techniques into competition.

"I think we've the tools in place, it's just a matter of them being receptive to what we tell them and most of the kids are," Morris said. "A good 60 to 70 percent are being very coachable and doing the moves I'm showing them in the meets. ... That's all I can ask. The rest are being fighters, and being tough and training hard."

While the Bulldogs are learning a lot of what Morris is teaching, the coach in turn is also learning about each wrestler, something that's difficult to accomplish in such a short time.

"I can't imagine what it's like with a new coach coming in the middle of high school," Morris said. "My coach was like a father, so I can't imagine what they're going through. It has to be weird for them. But despite everything, I think it's all going to be OK."

While the Bulldogs will continue working on Morris' technique during winter break, they'll look to carry some of their recent success into a busy January, which will include a rivalry dual meet against St. Charles East, the Batavia tournament and the Upstate Eight Conference tournament at East Aurora.

"I think we'll do well in the second half because we've started to pick it up lately," Augie Watson said. "We haven't peaked yet. We're still trying to hit that peak and hopefully we're going to get even better in the second half of the year."