Coming off a disappointing loss to Eden Prairie in the section semifinals last year, the Royals have come out of the gate swinging with an 11-1 record and winning games by an average of over 34 points.

The Royals’ only loss on the season was to Eastview, the defending state 4A champion, but the girls made up for it by defeating them in a New Year’s Eve rematch at Augsburg College.

“If losing in sections, being the number one seed, ranked number two all year isn’t motivation for the off-season, I don’t know what is. The bar is set extremely high, but it is every year,” said Brian Cosgriff, head coach.

While many teams set high expectations for themselves at the start of their seasons, few reach the type of success that the HHS girls basketball team has achieved in recent years. The Royals have won five state titles under Cosgriff, including three in a row between 2011 and 2013.

In order to live up to the standards the team sets for itself, the girls follow Cosgriff’s one percent rule.

“We use the saying that we want to improve one percent every day. Every day one percent. We gotta keep working hard and have great attention to detail, make sure we try to stay healthy. If we do that, we feel we will be in good shape,” Cosgriff said.

The team’s hard work is already showing through their play this season. The Royals are ranked number one in the state and are hoping to keep up their winning ways as they head into the heart of their season, playing Lake Conference foes such as Minnetonka, currently ranked second in state.

The girls have already blown past Edina in their conference opener, defeating the Hornets by a score of 67-30 on January 9th at the Hopkins Lindbergh Center.

TT Starks, senior captain, has been on the team since 8th grade and has seen first hand how far hard work can take the team.

“We just work on our basics: shooting, ball handling, layups, moving the ball around and working with your team. Not just making yourself better but making the team better,” said Staks.

“We shouldn’t lose another game,” Starks said, “We’ve proved what we need to prove, we just need to keep getting better everyday and play to the best of our ability every game.”

Although the girls seem to be on track for another highly successful season, Cosgriff knows that they must keep focus on their ultimate goal.

“We’ve always started off pretty good like this. Actually, I don’t think we’re playing as well as we have in past years. We have a lot of room for improvement, the potential is there, so we hope to be playing our best basketball in March,” Cosgriff said.