DADE CITY, FLA --

The Hanner family knows music.

“Since I was little, we’ve been in church singing,” Meisha Hanner said.

Those voices lift up Dade City’s The Church of the Living Christ congregation on Sundays. And on Friday nights, they lift up Javion Hanner.

“They yell louder than anybody,” Javion said. “I can hear them out of anybody. I know their voices.”

The Zephyrhills Christian senior makes his music on a football field. Music’s in Javion’s blood. But football has his heart.

“I used to see other people play football and I used to always run around everywhere,” he said. “I just started trying to play.”

First, he had to convince mom.

“She was like, oh, you’ve got to play flag first because I don’t know about you tackling,” Javion said.

Flag paved the way to tackle, which created a lot of questions.

“At first, my mom was like, what did you just do? What happened? Why is everyone screaming,”

“Once he started playing and I noticed that he loved to play, so I’m the type of person, if somebody I love, if that’s what makes them happy, I’m happy,” Meisha said. “I still don’t know football. I’m just learning how to count the downs.”

Meisha Hanner may not the rules, but she knows how talented her son is.

“People tell me, you need to stay on top of him,” she said. “He’s a good kid, he’s smart, you have a star.”

Meisha Hanner is happiest when Javion scores a touchdown. Her touchdown?

“If I can get somebody to say you really touched me with that song or you have a beautiful voice, that’s my touchdown,” Meisha said.

“I don’t know what God has planned for me yet, but I’ll just keep my head down, going to work and doing what I gotta do,” Javion said. “My family, they’ve always preached to me since I was little, no matter what you do, just do it 100 percent. If you play football at 100 percent, it’s going to reward you in the best way.”