The question is not what can Myles Hansford do on a football field. It’s what can’t he do?
The answer? He can’t downshift to a lower gear.
“To me practice is so important,” Hansford said. “During conditioning I’m always pushing my hardest, pushing to my limits until I feel like I’m gonna throw up. That’s what gets you ready.”
The good news is, he hasn’t puked. The better news for the Bordentown High football team is that Hansford is always ready; no matter where he plays.
As a freshman, Myles was a West Jersey Football League All-Freedom Division choice as a return man. A year later, he was All-Division as defensive back and in 2022 he got the same honor as a receiver. This year, coach Skip Edwards planned on nominating Hansford at quarterback.
“We graduated Denny Morolda and the question we had was, who’s gonna play quarterback, who’s gonna get the ball to Myles?” Edwards said. “Myles took care of that himself and decided he wanted to play quarterback, which was a great decision. It gave (juniors) Wyatt Kovac and Ari Miller a chance to play wideout and they’ve improved.”
Although Hansford was mainly a receiver in high school, he actually grew up playing QB for the Bordentown Bulldogs and he would serve as Morolda’s back-up with the Scotties. The position was definitely not new to him.
“I was getting reps at practice, I was built for it,” Hansford said. “I just thought being at quarterback, being the person to touch the ball every single play would give the team the best opportunity to win. So I had to take leadership and ownership there. I wanted to lead the team.”
He leads at more positions than one. Hansford is a return man who never gets a chance to return after taking one back 93 yards for a touchdown against Overbrook opening night.
“They haven’t kicked to me since,” Hansford said. “I despise when they kick away from me.”
Edwards recalled the Overbrook return, saying, “They thought they had him stopped and he bounced out of the pile and took it to the house. When you get players like this you want to exploit all their positive attributes and use them to the best of their ability. But they won’t kick to him on kickoffs because they’re afraid of what he can do.”
Trying to avoid Myles in the secondary is a bit tougher. Through the Scotties 3-5 start, he collected 57 tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, one safety, 11 pass deflections and seven interceptions, one that he took to the house.
“He just roams the secondary,” Edwards said. “He’s one of the key contributors on defense and one of the guys making secondary calls.”
He started at cornerback as a freshman and it was a learning experience.
“It’s definitely a big gap from a 14-year-old to an 18-year-old,” Hansford said. “I was always on the scout team and going against our starting offense. Our offense was super good so I’d get reps against them and that really prepared me for the games.”
As a sophomore he moved to safety, which lessened the pressure of being a lockdown cover man alone on an island. There is still huge responsibility, however, and Hansford knows what’s important to the position.
“Reading the quarterback’s eyes, that’s basically the main thing,” he said. “You have to take your read steps, and reading the quarterback’s eyes whether it’s pass or run. You have to be deeper than the deepest receiver and you have to be able to come up and make plays rather than run back and make plays. You have to be the last line of defense. It’s an important position.”
So is quarterback, and that is where Hansford truly stepped up this year. He admitted to being frustrated at being a back-up after running the show with the Bulldogs, but took the Scotties-first approach.
“I’m not a selfish person,” he said. “I’m gonna go wherever the team needs me. I was needed at receiver so I went to receiver and made plays there.”
Hansford had 15 catches for 203 yards and a touchdown as a junior. Since stepping behind center this season, he completed 48 of 88 passes for 824 yards and nine touchdowns with two games remaining.
He was on course to become Edwards first 1,000-yard passer since he coached at West Windsor-Plainsboro South in the mid-2010s, which is impressive in Bordentown’s run-first offense. Myles had also rushed for 322 yards and 10 touchdowns in 52 attempts.
“He’s very savvy at quarterback,” Edwards said. “I give Myles a greenlight to audible if he sees something that he feels will work. I would say eight of 10 times he’s on the money. He brings a skill set, he’s like an extra runner in the backfield. It’s almost like having a coach on the field, when he’s audibling. It’s not just run plays, it’s pass plays as well.
“He knows the game, he understands the game, he knows what secondaries and the front line look like. He knows how to diagnose the situations there and gets after it. And when he runs, he’s not gonna run out of bounds when you think he is. All of a sudden he’s cutting back.”
When he does drop to pass, Myles can launch it a long way.
“He has a very good arm and throws a very tight spiral, which is easy for the receivers to handle,” Edwards said.
Hansford feels having played receiver has helped his passing, noting, “I know how I used to run my routes, and you have to get the ball out before they even make their break. Repping in practice with receivers has helped, and by playing receiver I’m comfortable knowing where they will be.”
And while all that offense has been a big help to Bordentown, it is his defensive skills that will take Hansford to the next level. As a member of the National Honor Society who sports a 3.7 grade point average — Edwards, in fact, was worried his academics would lead him to a prep school — Myles is exploring colleges such as St. Anselm, Delaware, Rutgers, Kutztown and Penn.
They want him in their secondary, and it’s easy to see why. For his career, Hansford has 156 tackles, eight forced fumbles,four fumble recoveries, 17 interceptions (six that he returned for TDs), 26 pass deflections and five sacks. He has no problem coming up to help stop the run.
“I’m definitely a big run support guy, I love making tackles,” he said. “I’ll fly up on the ball and make tackles; or get back and play the pass.”
Considering he rarely gets a break during games, Hansford knows he has to be in top shape. Thus, before school each morning he goes to Team 85 to lift and run laps. “Just utilizing the fact that the gym opens so early, I can get up, go there, go to school, go to practice and get all my homework done,” he said. “That’s the cycle.”
The cycle never ends, as Hansford also plays basketball and runs track. But football remains his true passion.
“It means everything,” he said. “When I lose, my week just gets worse. I eat, sleep and breathe football. I’m always watching it. I’m always trying to learn the game. It’s just a big big part of my life.”
That becomes very evident just watching him play.
Bordentown High senior Myles Hansford with his mother, Melanie.,
