EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a series looking back at the Top 10 boys basketball teams, coaches, games and players from the last decade.

No area 1,000-point scorer attempted fewer shots last decade than Kyle Datres. Heck, there might be games he went quarters without shooting the basketball.

And yet during those stretches, there also might not have been a player on the court who made a greater impact. Yes, Datres could score, but he did so much more and his points are often the last thing one thinks about when looking back at his spectacular high school career. The assists, the stifling defense, the tremendous leadership and the iron will … those are the qualities which best defined the four-year starting point guard and three-time all-state selection.

“Getting everybody involved and moving, that’s my job,” Datres said after playing super defense and dealing 10 assists in a 64-55 win against Lewisburg as a sophomore in 2013. “I could not care less about how many points I scored.”

Datres never cared about individual statistics. Winning was all that mattered and that is really all Loyalsock did from 2012-15, going 97-16. Part of a dynamic group of players who shined from freshman through their senior years, Datres helped Loyalsock capture three District 4 Class AA championships, win four league titles, reach the 2013 state quarterfinals and advance to the 2015 Final Four.

Datres was a 1,000-point scorer, but more impressively set the the state record for career assists, closing with 859. He never averaged fewer than five assists per game and had the kind of vision that might make Super Man envious. Datres often knew teammates were open before they did and was an expert and getting everyone involved and frustrating defenses.

“He is a player that can see the whole court,” all-state center Roger Wilson said in 2013. “He makes great passes. He is all over. He is a true point guard.”

It was a different sport but same script. Datres possessed those qualities in football where he was a three-time all-stater and in baseball where he helped Loyalsock win two state championships before playing collegiately at North Carolina. And what made Datres great in those sports easily translated to the basketball court.

If winning meant scoring a lot, Datres could do it. If winning meant piling up the assists Datres did it. If winning meant shutting down the opponent’s best player, whether a guard or a post player, Datres did it. He was coach Ron Insinger’s Swiss Army Knife with the focus and drive to match his talent.

“He plays hard for 32 minutes. He has that drive, that mentality that he refuses to lose. You see it when he’s at bat, you see him when he’s throwing the ball on the football field. He wants the ball at crunch time,” Insinger said in 2014. “He’s a leader on the football field and he picks up where he left off on the basketball court. He’s just like an assistant coach on the floor. He has good instincts and he knows the game well enough to make moves and he can make switches without us telling him.”

The first time this reporter watched Datres play was as a third grader when he played in a scrimmage at halftime of a varsity high school game. It was obvious then that Datres was on a different level and he immediately showed that nothing had changed by his freshman year. There really was no learning curve as Datres fit into the starting lineup like a glove and helped the Lancers surge as the season continued.

He averaged 8.5 points, 5.2 assists and 3.8 steals per game as Loyalsock went 22-4 and won its first district title since 2009. Just as important, Datres dominated defensively, earning the first of four Sun-Gazette Defensive Player of the Year Awards. Relentlessly hounding guards, Datres played a major role in holding every Loyalsock opponent to fewer than 50 points.

The scary thing was Datres was just getting started. State tournament success had eluded Loyalsock throughout the 2000s, but Datres and his teammates broke through in 2013 and reached the state quarterfinals, repeating as both HAC-II and District 4 champions while coming within a split second of reaching the Final Four.

Records started falling that season as Datres set the Loyalsock single-season assist record while averaging 8.6, along with 4.4 steals per game. Datres anchored the defense again and held Lewisburg all-state guard Travis Conrad to nine points or fewer in four wins against the state qualifiers. Just as important, Datres often converted defense into offense, quarterbacking one of the state’s best fast-break offenses.

Wilson was a force inside, future all-state forward Ben Sosa was coming on strong, guard Omar Little was on his way to topping 1,000 points and fellow guard Mike Pastore was fast becoming one of the district’s top guards. Datres consistently found them all, sacrificing personal glory for team glory.

“He’s not always the leading scorer, but he knows where to be and he puts people in the right spot at the right time and he gets it done,” Pastore said. “He does it all.”

“That’s just Kyle. That’s why he is successful,” Insinger said. “When it’s all said and done he’s going to do what is going to benefit the team the most.”

That continued in 2014 as Datres averaged 7.2 assists and 4.4 steals as Loyalsock went 25-4 and returned to the second round of the state tournament. Six times that season Datres made at least seven steals in a game, including 10 against state qualifier Central Columbia. That played a major role in Loyalsock averaging 70 points per game.

Datres hounded opposing guards, but if Insinger needed him to slow down a strong post player, Datres could do that, too, making it difficult for him to receive entry passes. Combine that with dealing at least 10 assists six times and possessing an Einstein-like mind on the court and Loyalsock had quite an advantage with Datres on its side.

“Kyle is an unbelievable leader,” Pastore said. “He shows it on the court and she stays on us and tells us where we need to be at during the game.

“Kyle is an invaluable resource on the court because he is so heady and he has such great vision,” Insinger said. “Sometimes I think he has eyes in the back of his head because he just knows exactly where everyone is. That’s like having almost two coaches on the floor.”

The player-coach had his best season as a senior, averaging 10.2 points, 8.6 assists, 5.9 rebounds and 4.3 steals per game. Loyalsock went 26-4, won their third district title in four years and reached the state’s Final Four for the first time since 1993.

He was unflappable in pressure moments and again excelled in the playoffs, being the team’s handy man and doing whatever a specific moment called for. He had 13 assists, including three in the last two minutes of a 70-66 comeback win against 21-in Lewisburg, bested he previous state record for assists by 107 and scored his 1,000th point in a district championship victory against Wellsboro.

Datres built a mountain of individual records and honors during his scholastic career and the stats are eye-opening. However, it is a quality which cannot be measured by numbers that pushed this consummate leader and his team to such lofty heights.

“Kyle has the best quality of a good basketball player by his ability to make the players around him look great and he does that every single night,” Insinger said. “He doesn’t have a bad night of making his teammates look good.”