HIGHLAND — Mike Urban has been at the helm of the Highland girls basketball team less than a full season and he’s already tired of it.

He didn’t say it outright, but you can see it in his eyes.

It doesn’t help that there’s a banner with a pair of Jenny DeMuth jerseys hanging at the north end of his team’s gymnasium.

But, please, stop talking about any DeMuths — Jenny or Julie. They’re not at Highland anymore. This is a new Trojans squad and in case you haven’t noticed, they’re doing just fine.

“I knew Julie for a long time. She baby-sat my kids sometimes. I talked to her at school. She’s a fine basketball player,” Urban said. “But we told them this is you now. There’s no great white horse coming in to save you.

“It’s the 11 girls we have right here.”

And those 11 girls have performed above and beyond expectations. At least everyone else’s expectations. After a two-point victory at Hobart on Tuesday, the Trojans are 15-4 overall and 5-0 in the LAC Black.

“Everyone doubted us,” said Jody Shimanek, who is the leading scorer on the team at only 8.9 points per game. “I like this year because I have a role out there. I’ve always been Julie’s back-up.”

Shimanek couldn’t help but smile after stating that she’s not a back-up anymore to the Trojans’ former post player. But she’s not the only player whose role has expanded.

After losing 80 percent of their scoring from last year, whether it was from transfer or graduation, Urban had a monumental task of convincing players with minor roles in the past to develop a scorer’s mentality.

“There’s not a girl on this team who we’ve told not to shoot the basketball,” he said.

“I’ve always believed it’s difficult to beat five people playing together. There’s a lot of defenses made to shut down one person or two, if they have to. Our girls feel comfortable with the offenses we try to run.”

It wasn’t a quick or painless transition, though. Urban wasn’t named coach until late in the summer. He had been out of coaching four years after leading Highland’s boys team for 13 years. And the girls team had posted a phenomenal record of 90-12 over the last four years.

Though he had very little time to work with and high expectations to live up to, the players bought into the coaching staff’s philosophy and have executed it to near perfection most of the time.

“In the beginning, it took a lot of confidence building to see that we could all score,” said senior Georgieann Michels. “If the defense tries to focus on one player we have three others who can step up.

“We knew we wouldn’t have someone who could put up 20 points per game every night. We knew it would be a team effort with everyone contributing, and that’s a good thing.”

Every bit of the Trojans’ unselfish teamwork will be needed as they move back into a tough Class 4A sectional after two years in Class 3A.