Editor’s note: This is the second story in a weeklong series recognizing noteworthy graduates from the Class of 2016. This year’s series highlights “comeback kids,” students who turned challenges into personal triumphs.

Lining the room in Columbia Falls High School where student athletes hone their wrestling skills, a series of stone pillars notes each of the virtues central to the Mat Cats: Respect, Intensity, Dedication, Loyalty, Passion, Poise.

Like the others, the seventh pillar — labeled “Courage” — has a cluster of signatures scrawled at its base. One of them reads, “Daniel Batt.”

As he prepared recently for high school graduation, Batt, 17, said he hardly expected to reach this point in his academic career four years ago.

“I really stood out from all the other kids with how I’d behave, how I acted,” Batt said. “I didn’t really have a filter.”

Batt struggled with behavioral problems since fourth grade, and even before walking into his first high school class, his reputation landed him a meeting with Assistant Principal John Thompson to discuss his problems.

Batt arrived in 2012 as a troubled youth with a lengthy disciplinary record — including running afoul of the law. Even after the stern warning, Thompson didn’t get much indication the freshman had any desire to change.

“I saw him a lot early in his high school career,” Thompson said. “It was mostly for disruptive behaviors, silly things from shooting rubber bands to talking incessantly in class.”

Batt would frequently act out during that time, he said; running through the school, getting into fights, dashing out of classrooms and slamming his body into lockers.

“I was still that crazy kid running down the hall, screaming,” Batt remembered. “One time, I let someone wrap tape all over me. Just to entertain them, just to fit in, I guess.”

He said he was bullied and treated like an outsider by his peers, adding that he “didn’t have a thought process” that allowed him to rationally deal with the lack of acceptance.

Batt now speaks frequently about gaining the courage to be himself. He credits part of that transformation to finding out, during his freshman year, that he had been struggling with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder along with Asperger’s Syndrome, which the American Psychological Association classifies as a form of autism.

Another saving grace was wrestling, to which he has remained dedicated since joining the team as a freshman.

“I don’t know, I might have been kicked out of school if it hadn’t been for them,” Batt said of his wrestling coaches.

The team’s head coach, Jesse Schaeffer, said that while Batt came to the program with “a chip on his shoulder,” it’s clear the structure and camaraderie of the sport helped him begin to feel accepted.

“We tried to teach him through those moments: What are you getting out of arguing with your teacher and feeling like people are out to get you?” Shaeffer said. “He realized there is somebody out there that cared about him and he found a place to be and a place to fit in.”

By his sophomore year, Batt said he began thinking more broadly about the consequences of his actions.

The school’s literature class, which places a heavy emphasis on philosophy underlying classic works, also opened Batt up to the possibility that his mental differences could serve as strengths.

”That sort of helped me figure out who I was and where I could be. It’s about centering yourself,” he said. “It blew my mind that I had thought about this stuff before. Everyone was really amazed and I’m just like, wow. I’m not the only one that thinks this way.”

As a senior, Batt has earned straight A’s for the first time in his life, carved out a reputation as a hard-working wrestler on the Mat Cats and emerged as a talented drummer in the school’s percussion band.

After graduation on Saturday, he’s looking forward to starting a second job as a landscaper in Glacier National Park and taking time to decide whether to pursue higher education. He’s considering a degree in philosophy, but is also weighing whether to apply to a music school to develop his newfound love of percussion.

Looking back on the last four years, Batt credits his family, coaches, the staff at Columbia Falls High School and his friends for their patience in allowing him to grow as a person.

Those who helped him along said they’ve learned from him as well.

“I’m not sure I would have thought someone could come as far as he has, from where he started,” Thompson said. “That’s one thing I’ll take away from Daniel’s career here — that a student who sets graduation as a goal can overcome a lot of odds. Insurmountable odds, almost, in order to succeed.”

Batt said he’ll keep working to harness the inner courage that shaped the person he is today.

“Where I was, the things I’ve gone through, those meant the most to me and wrestling was the most impactful thing in my life,” he said. “It’s something that I think will stay with me forever.”