Tennessee high school football player named after Denver Broncos 'means everything' to his team's defense

Bronco Hanks' love for football was carved out well before he was born.

His parents wanted to name their son after something they loved. They both love football, and they both love the Denver Broncos. The choice became easy.

"My dad just wanted to name his kid Bronco I guess because he's a big Denver Broncos fan," Hanks joked. "I love it and I'm happy that it's my name."

Hanks grew up a Denver Broncos fan thanks to his parents and fell in love with the game. He watched Von Miller lead the Broncos dominant defense to a Super Bowl 50 win and saw a future for himself as a leader on the defensive side of the ball like Miller.

OFFENSIVE, DEFENSIVE STANDOUTS:16 frontrunners for Nashville area football offensive, defensive players of the year

BEST FROM WEEKS 1-5:Here are the top 10 Nashville high school football single games from the first 5 weeks

Since he started playing high school football, the linebacker has led Beech in tackles each of the last two seasons and is on pace to do so again. Despite Hanks' hot start to the season, Beech's defense didn't start off with the same success.

The Buccaneers gave up 31 points in their season-opening loss to Farragut and 21 the next week in a win over Henry County. Not pleased with either of those performances, Hanks began to settle things down.

With a 22-7 win over Summit on Thursday night, the Buccaneers have won three straight games and allowed fewer than 10 points in each of them.

"Bronco means everything to this team," Beech coach Anthony Crabtree said. "Without him, we struggle to get lined up. He makes all of our calls and he's easily one of the best players on our team.

"He's our leader and we'd be in some trouble without him."

In their last two wins over Clarksville and Hendersonville, the Buccaneers (4-1) defense wasn't tested often and easily cruised to blowout wins. Summit (1-5) hasn't experienced the success it has had in the past, but Hanks said Thursday night provided a tougher challenge against a team Beech hasn't had much success against the last few seasons.

Summit won the previous two matchups between the teams, including a 36-29 win over the Buccaneers in the state quarterfinals two years ago. Those memories made Thursday night's 15-point win even sweeter.

"That was a hard fought win," Hanks said. "These past two years, they've been a great team and it feels great to finally go against them and walk away with a win."

Beech needed its defense to be stout as the Buccaneers scored on their opening drive but went scoreless for nearly two and half quarters. Summit had three red zone possessions during that stretch but the Buccaneers forced two fumbles and also came up with a fourth down stop.

Summit eventually found the end zone late in the third quarter, but that was the last drive that Beech's defense allowed the Spartans to get past the 50.

"The defense just keeps finding ways to make plays when it matters, Crabtree said. "I want to say we keep getting better but we watch the film and see a lot of mistakes. We gave up some plays but we only gave up one score again.

"We bend but we don't break. They just keep fighting and we need to continue to work on our fundamentals and get better."

Reach Joe Spears at jspears2@gannett.com. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @joe_spears7.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Denver Broncos: TN high school football player named after NFL team