Sports are very numbers-driven.

It only makes sense. There are winners. There are losers. The best way to tell the difference is good ole’ numbers.

That trickles all the way down to the athletes who play them.

Yards, points, goals, touchdowns, home runs, batting average, etc.

On and on it goes.

Sometimes, though, numbers don’t tell the whole story of an athlete’s value.

There are players who do things that don’t show up in the box score.

There are a plethora of those in the Butler County area every season.

Here are just a few of the unsung heroes who have stood out for me so far on the high school basketball courts this winter.

Jake Whitmer, Slippery Rock — The senior guard gets his points. He averaged a little more than 10 per game last season and is at 13.2 points per contest this year.

Scoring is just a part of Whitmer’s value.

Against Knoch last week, Whitmer turned in one of the best all-around performances I have seen.

He handed out assists. He handled the ball. He took charges. He guarded well. He was a leader.

Whitmer is one of the smartest players I have seen. Smarts rarely show up as a stat in a box score.

Annie Hegedus, Karns City — Like Whitmer, Hegedus has a lot of responsibility. She runs the show for the Karns City girls basketball team.

Because she is surrounded by a such a solid cast — and lots of scorers — she rarely reaches double-digits in points.

Her value lies with the many other things she does: assists, stellar defense and protecting the ball.

Alazia Greaves, Moniteau — There is no “points taken away” stat in basketball.

But if there were one, Greaves would lead the world in that category.

Greaves’ assignment every night is to guard the opponent’s top scorer and she usually holds that player well under her season average.

Greaves, only a sophomore, has improved her offense this season, which has increased her value even more.

The entire Butler boys basketball bench — Golden Tornado coach Matt Clement has plenty of pieces.

And he uses them well.

Whether it is bringing in the Stutz boys — Jace and Joel — to hit some big 3-pointers or swapping in a whole new lineup, Butler has been successful this season doing all the little things right.

Best of the rest: PJ Gourley, Knoch, does the grunt work off the bench for the Knights; Bailey Boyd, Slippery Rock, is the scrappy glue for the very, very young Rockets’ girls basketball team; Danyelle Lucido, Grove City, gets the ball to the scorers like Jordyn Wyllie, Alexis Deyarmin and Brenna Deyarmin as the point guard and plays solid defense.

There are many more, but you get the picture. Sometimes, worth is not tied rigidly to “numbers.”

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.