BOCA RATON – Head over heart is usually what matters when a tough decision has to be made.

For our inaugural Breakthrough Player of the Year, it is crystal clear that no player in Palm Beach County deserves it more than Boca Raton senior athlete Tra’Nell Hollis. This is simply going by one’s head and by simple logic.

However, the heart can pull one into a direction that may or may not be right. And herein lies the issue.

In this particular case, there is no wrong way to go. The heart would go with both Hollis and Royal Palm Beach senior athlete Ketron Hadley (Breakthrough POY runner-up) sharing this award together.

Here’s the scoop: Hollis wins this award over Hadley because of two things.

First, Boca Raton (8-3 final record) qualified for the FHSAA playoffs and Royal Palm Beach (6-4 final record) did not, even though both teams have made tremendous strides this season in more ways than one.

Second, even though Hadley won both Breakthrough Player and MVP of the Week honors in Week 2 of the regular season, Hollis has been more consistent throughout the season, as evidenced by his Breakthrough Player of the Week honor in Week 4 and MVP of the Week honor in Week 8.

But when one looks at their final numbers, it’s easy to see why either Hadley should have won this award over Hollis or they should have shared this award with each other.

Here are the end-of-season stats for Hollis and Hadley:

Hollis – 73 tackles, 1 interception, 6 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery, 2 sacks, and 5 total touchdowns

Hadley – 49 catches, 765 receiving yards, 11 touchdowns on offense; 58 tackles (36 solo), 5 tackles for loss, 3 interceptions

Both players are true leaders in their own right. We saw that in the Palm Beach County All-Star Game on Dec. 14.

While Hadley may have made a bigger play with a second-half interception for the National team in a 33-5 win over American, a goal-line stand stop by Hollis may have been even more impactful just because his American teammates saw his type of leadership shining through in a time that really mattered to them.

And going back to the regular season, there were two moments in particular that stood out.

The first one came in Week 4, when Hollis scored the game’s only touchdown on a rushing play in the fourth quarter of a grind-it-out 6-3 home win over Fort Pierce Central. Few thought that Hollis and his team had the gravitas to pull it off, but his grit and determination proved to be the difference in that one.

And in Week 8, a 38-14 home win over Monarch, Hollis led the way with two interceptions on defense, including a pick-six that set the tone for Boca Raton’s most impressive win of the season. Ultimately, it gave his team a level of respect throughout Palm Beach County and even beyond.

What we’re saying is this: Stats tell a big story in how we view a player’s production, but it isn’t everything. The details matter a lot as well, and this – more than anything else – is why Hollis is our Breakthrough Player of the Year.