There were many unknowns about the Wellington Dukes before the 2009-10 season.

Legendary head coach Tom Eibel retired, and the Dukes best player from last season, Brandon Schmidt graduated from the team that finished 11-11.

The Dukes returned five letterwinners this season, but four of them were either freshman, or sophomores last season.

Thirteen games into this season, the Dukes find themselves at 9-4, and 7-1 in the Patriot Athletic Conference. Before a loss to Clearview on Feb. 2, the Dukes had won three in a row, and eight of their last nine games.

A big reason for the early success can be attributed to first-year coach Nathan Morris.

Morris isn’t your typical first-year coach. He was an assistant under Eibel for 10 season, and was also was the head coach of the J.V. team the previous two seasons.

The fact that Morris was so familiar with the program made transition a lot easier for everyone. Morris said he had his doubts before the season, but he wasn’t too worried.

“I really learned a lot from coach Eibel, he was my mentor,” Morris said. “I haven’t really changed much in our philosophy from when he coached. We do put a ton of emphasis on the defensive end and that has really helped us get off to a good start.”

The Dukes are one of the stingiest teams in the county. They allow just 49.8 points a game, and have held their opponents to 37.3 percent shooting from the field and 25 percent from the three-point line. They also force 17.6 turnovers a game.

Another key to the team’s early success according to Morris was the fact that the team bounded together very early. This past summer the team attended an overnight camp at Youngstown State University. Morris said that experience was very important for his team’s growth.

“It gave us an opportunity to really focus together as a team,” said Morris about the camp. “We did everything together and it really gave us an opportunity to get to know one another.

“After the games we would discuss on the positives things that happened, and the guys really bought into the system.”

All the positives the team got during the summer, didn’t translate into wins on the basketball court. In their first game of the season, the Dukes traveled to Vermilion and lost 73-63. Even though the team lost, Morris felt the team made significant strides.

“We were still in the process of getting familiar with each other, but we showed a lot of character in that game,” Morris said. “We were down by 20 early to them and we never gave up and competed the whole game. If we continue to battle like that every game we will be successful.”

Senior captain Robert Shays, who leads the team in scoring at 14.7 ppg., said the team was happy when they found out that Morris would be their next coach.

“It was a big help for us,” Shays said. “We knew what he wanted, and we knew he wanted us to work hard and we have been so far.”

Shays said the playing experience juniors Justin Kidd, Devin Broadwater and sophomores Jason Perry and Zac Gilbert got last year has really paid off this season.

“Those guys have stepped big for us,” Shays said. “As a team we hustle. It all starts at practice and that translates into games.

“Personally I wanted to get better at free throw shooting, and this season I’ve made some big ones late in games to help us win.”

Kidd, who averages 10.4 points and four rebounds a game, said Morris has been shot in the arm for the team.

“He’s really energetic,” said Kidd about Morris. “He gets us going everyday in practice and in games, it’s never a dull moment with him.

“He doesn’t yell a lot, but he’s very vocal. Everything he talks about is always positive though.”

Kidd believes the teams success is attributed to the fact that they are not a one man team, but that they have to rely on everyone to step up and produce.

“Our J.V. team even practices hard, which helps us out a lot,” Kidd said.

Shays added that the team set a goal before the season to win the PAC title, and that if they take it one game at a time they will achieve it. The Dukes currently have a 1.5 game lead on Keystone in the Stars Division, and trail Clearview by a half game for the outright PAC title. Things won’t get any easier for the Dukes, as they have two games remaining with the Wildcats. The first meeting is at home on Feb. 6, and the second meeting is at Keystone on Feb. 19.