Butler County is teaming with exceptional boys and girls basketball players this season.

Enough stars to fill up a galaxy.

Ethan Morton at Butler, Mason Bush at Seneca Valley, Mihali Sfanos and Michael Carmody at Mars, Ethan McDeavitt at Moniteau, Chase Beighley at Karns City, Levi Orton at A-C Valley, pretty much all five guys in Knoch’s starting lineup ... the list goes on and on.

On the girls side, there’s Tess Myers and Butler’s own Kylee Lewandowski at North Catholic, Bella Pelaia at Mars, Aslyn Pry at Moniteau, Nevaeh Ewing and Madilyn Boyer at Knoch, McKenna Maier at Butler, Sidney Shemanski at Freeport. Again, the list goes on and on and that just touches on a few standouts.

What makes a great basketball team, though, is often who surrounds those stars.

The players who do the dirty work. The unsung players. The ones who toil in relative obscurity but help their teams win and their team’s star get the points and the accolades.

Here’s to them.

There are many more that fit this criteria than the ones I am about to name — every team has one or two of these types of players — but these are the ones I’ve either seen personally this season or have heard things about from other writers and coaches:

Joey Craska, Mars.

The Planets are not lacking in stars. Carmody is averaging 19.8 points and a staggering 19.5 rebounds per game this season. Sfanos is putting up 16 per contest.

Craska gets lost in the shuffle and on the surface the senior guard’s stats look pedestrian, but he is the quintessential grinder who has a knack of coming up with a big defensive stop, bucket or general play to help Mars win.

Charlie Kreinbucher, Butler.

The 6-foot-5 sophomore will have a big future for the Golden Tornado and he’s showing glimpses of what’s to come this season for Butler.

On a team with Morton, Devin Carney and Mattix Clement, Kreinbucher sometimes gets lost in the shadows — until he throws down a thunderous dunk, that is.

Eddie Stevanus, A-C Valley.

Orton gets a lot of attention and deservedly so. The junior just topped 1,000 career points and is sizzling hot this season, averaging 24 points and 9.5 rebounds per game.

Stevanus is the Pippen to Orton’s Jordan with some pretty healthy numbers as well: 13 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. He’s one of the reasons why the Falcons are 11-6 a season after winning just six games.

Here’s a few unsung heroes on the girls side:

Sarayne Forbes, Butler.

The junior guard is capable of going on torrid stretches, as she did Monday against Shaler in which she hit her first five 3-pointers and finished with 19.

Forbes and Maier could be a formidable one-two punch for Butler next year as well.

Nina Shaw, Knoch.

Just a freshman, Shaw is diminutive at 5-1, which actually aids her game.

No one is going to be able to easily steal the ball from the point guard, who has one of the fastest dribbles I have seen in a long time and as she improves her scoring punch, look out.

Pretty much everyone at Slippery Rock.

The Rockets have been besieged by injuries. junior guard Maryann Ackerman was lost for the season with a torn ACL and junior guard/forward Hallie Raabe has only played six games because of a severe ankle sprain.

Filling the void has been essential and a plethora of Slippery Rock players have done just that.

Point guard Anna Kadlubek has been steady. The emergence of Kelly Benson has been key and players like Ella McDermott, Bronwyn McCoy and Gianna Bedel have all had big games.

As Slippery Rock coach Amber Osborn said, “All of them have been (unsung heroes) at some point this season.”

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.