Editor’s Note: this is the second in a series of stories on incoming football recruits for both the Montana and Montana State football programs that will run throughout January and February at Skyline Sports.
A local legend helped Xavier Harris and Aaron Fontes navigate the path from Oxnard, California to the University of Montana.
And the explosive skill position duo are about to embark on a dream come true playing alongside one another in Missoula for Bobby Hauck’s Grizzlies.
Harris, a 5-foot-9, 185-pound slashing running back with pass catching skills, and Fontes, a 6-foot-2, 172-pound wide receiver with big-play potential, started playing football together in elementary school. From the Oxnard Warriors to Oxnard High, the pair has always dreamed of playing alongside of each other in college.
And growing up in Oxnard, they were surrounded by an abundance of talented football playing idols. The Dallas Cowboys hold their training camp in Oxnard. The youth of the community sometimes attend practices and travel the facilities. And Oxnard has produced dozens of elite athletes — former Olympian Marion Jones and former U.S. Open golf champion Corey Pavin top the list — including Lorenzo Booker, one of the most decorated prep athletes in the town’s history.
Booker attended St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, California, where he rose to become one of the top football and track recruits in the United States. He was widely regarded as the top running back prospect in the country, earning high school All-American honors and a designation as a five-star recruit during his senior year in 2001.
He set the California state record with 137 touchdowns in his career and St. Bonaventure went 42-0 his three years as a starter. That combined with his track and field exploits earned him the Gatorade High School Heisman as the top high school athlete in the nation.
Booker ended up going to Florida State, where he split time in a talented backfield. The eventual third-round pick in the 2007 NFL Draft had limited success with the Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears before retiring following the 2012 season.
Booker’s career may have not lived up to his prodigious talent. But he has given back to his community consistently since retirement. He is a family friend of Harris’s and Booker has had a significant influence on the future of Montana’s two newest skill players from his hometown.
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“He helped us with our footwork, our knowledge of the game, our strength,” Harris said. “He went to Florida State and the NFL and he has come back to our town, which has motivated me to reach this point.
“He has always told us to stay humble and stay hungry and work hard. That’s it.”
Staying humble and staying hungry is what led the pair of former high school teammates to sign with Montana on December 22. Harris, a 3-star running back with outstanding production for three prep seasons, chose the Griz over Columbia. Fontes, a three-star wide receiver who chose Montana over an offer from Colorado State that he earned at a camp a few days after working out with Booker, also noted Booker’s influence on his college recruitment.
“He’s always spent time with us and he trains us any time, anywhere to get us right,” Fontes said. “It had an impact on us because over the summer, I trained with Lorenzo and we work on a ton of stuff.”
Montana recruiting coordinator and running backs coach Justin Green, a native of San Diego who is UM’s primary Southern California recruiter, first identified the play-making duo who led the Yellowjackets to a 10-2 record that included a win over St. Bonaventure in the CIF playoffs.
Harris, who also plays basketball, proved to be a scoring machine over his last three years on the gridiron. The last three seasons, he ran the ball 393 times for 3,669 yards and 58 touchdowns while also accumulating 4,537 yards from scrimmage and catching nine touchdown passes.
As a junior, Harris rushed for 1,659 yards and 27 touchdowns. He caught 26 passes for 415 yards and five more scores. As a senior, he rushed for 1,605 yards and 24 more touchdowns. He rushed for 100 or more yards 10 times his senior year and 19 times in his high school career. Over the last three years, he averaged 9.3 yards per carry, 104.8 yards per game, and 142.1 all-purpose yards per contest.
Harris scored 424 points in his high school career, averaging 12.1 points per game and amassing an impressive 67 total touchdowns.
The slashing, diverse running back will be an interesting addition to Montana offensive coordinator Timm Rosenbach’s quick-hitting yet big-play prevalent offensive attack. The Griz averaged 37 points and 450 yards per game during a 10-win season that included the program’s first playoff berth since 2015.
“In the offense now, they can put me in packages, I can play in the backfield, they can put me in the slot,” Harris said. “They can do a lot of things for me right now and I’m ready for it.”
Fontes made the most of his limited opportunities in an offense that prioritized running the football. He caught 47 passes for 914 yards and 11 scores in his career, including 26 passes for 651 yards and 10 touchdowns as a senior. He averaged 25 yards per catch his final prep season.
The offer from Colorado State kept Fontes’ interest, even after he made his official visit alongside Harris to UM to watch the Grizzlies run away from rival Idaho, 42-17 the second Saturday of November. Local schools like San Jose State, USC an UCLA expressed interest but never came through with a solid scholarship offer. Yet Fontes did not give his commitment to Green and Hauck until the night before the early signing period opened.
“It was my own decision for once and men have to make their own decisions,” Fontes said. “I was a late commitment and I did it that night, the night before I signed. Me and my dad wanted to wait for other schools, see what else I could get, see if I could get more visits or offers.
“But at the same time, I was already thinking, ‘Montana offered me, I’m No. 1 on their board and the place felt like home.’ So that made me feel like that’s where I wanted to be the next four years.”
Fontes said the offer Montana made to Harris was the first thing that got him excited about the Griz. Listening to the two recruits talk about the Montana program — from the family atmosphere to the game day experience at Washington-Grizzly Stadium to the fan support to the academic opportunities (both want to major in sports medicine) to opportunity to play together — sound like identical recollections of the recruiting pitch they received and the things that drew them to Montana.
Both mentioned the welcoming nature of Missoula, the college town feel and the fact that “everyone in the entire city seems to go to or care about the games,” according to Fontes. Harris went as far as to call Missoula “the greatest town I’ve ever been in.”
Booker helped guide the way. Each Oxnard product’s hard work individually earned the attention. And now Fontes and Harris are coming to Montana to navigate their journeys as Grizzlies together.
“This is honestly a dream come true because me and Aaron, we have played together since we were eight years old,” Harris said. “We went from the Oxnard Warriors to high school and now we are going to a big college together. It’s something that people dream of we are actually making it happen. It’s one of the best feelings ever.”
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