November 04, 2024
The Walk-On: Luke Fonts ’25
By Chris Mancini ’24
Ed Cooley called on a Tuesday night. Luke Fonts ’25 was expecting it.
It was 2020 and Fonts was in his junior year at Portsmouth Abbey School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where as captain of the basketball team he was averaging 17 points a game and shooting 38% from behind the arc. He was good. But was he good enough to play Division I?
Cooley, then coach of the men’s basketball team at Providence College, made Fonts an offer. He couldn’t offer a scholarship to play at PC. But he could designate Fonts as a preferred walk-on, or PWO. Fonts would have to apply to the college and get accepted on his own academic merits, but he’d achieve his dream: To suit up as a Friar.
Fonts recalls his choices: “Playing Division III in New England or be a Division I walk-on.”
He already had strong ties to PC. His older brother, Andrew Fonts ’21, played for the basketball team. Their dad, Raul Fonts, was then associate vice president and dean of admission and financial aid.
The choice was a no-brainer.
“Every kid dreams of playing at the Dunk,” Fonts says, referring to the former name of Amica Mutual Pavillion.
Almost every DI basketball team has its Luke Fonts. We see them at the end of benches in their warmup shirts. We see them shooting pregame, but never in the game. We see them in practice videos and hype-up videos, but we also see them in class, at the bar, and working regular jobs after graduation. They put in the same work as scholarship players, lifting weights, running up and down the court, and traveling across the country on red-eyes. But they rarely touch the ball.
What’s their motivation?
During March Madness, players like Luke Fonts ride the benches of teams across the country. But they aren’t just seat-warmers. They’re an essential glue to every team. They’re the first to jump up and celebrate a teammate’s basket, the first to pick up a teammate when he falls. They’re also the everyman, the closest thing to a regular guy on a squad of superhuman athletes, the bridge that connects spectators with their childhood dreams.
Fonts came from a family of walk-ons. Andrew was a PWO in 2017, paving the way for his younger brother in ways both good and intimidating. For one year, they were both Friars.
“Drew being on the team already definitely gave me a little added pressure and a small target on my back from the coaching staff,” the younger Fonts says. “As a freshman walk-on you know nothing and are just trying to stay afloat and limit your mistakes as best as you can. The assistants definitely gave me some grief if I messed up a drill, which was frequent.”
Joe Keller, who was a graduate manager for the basketball team from 2021-2022, remembers giving Luke a bit of hazing.
“Seeing him come into the program was a funny experience for me because he was always ‘Little Fonts,’” said Keller, who had been friends with Andrew through college. “Trust me, anytime he missed an open shot we let him hear it.”
But Luke was also hearing a lot of cheering. He was a freshman when Andrew was a fifth-year senior in 2021-2022 and the Friars won their first-ever BIG EAST regular season championship.
“Winning the BIG EAST championship my freshman year was one of the best moments of my life,” Fonts said. A couple weeks later in the NCAA tournament, both Fontses got off the bench and played together in a second-round game against Richmond, advancing to the Sweet 16. The team narrowly lost their next game to Kansas, which ultimately won the NCAA championship.
In the two years since, Andrew has gone on to a career in finance in New York City. Luke got off the bench in four games last season. He did not take the floor in 2023-2024.
But play time is almost beside the point. Connor Heine, who walked onto Providence’s basketball squad for the 2008-2009 season, scored a grand total of one bucket in his collegiate career. But he relishes the experience.
“I had one year to go play at awesome venues,” Heine recalled, mentioning Madison Square Garden, Gampel Pavilion, and the Carrier Dome. “I got on TV nonstop as the token guy at the end of the bench, while still having a normal life at school and getting to put it on my resume.”
Like Heine, Fonts has played with future pros. Friar guard Devin Carter was a first-round pick, 13th overall, in the 2024 NBA draft. Heine played with Marshon Brooks, the 25th pick in the 2011 draft.
“[Brooks] was probably my closest friend on the team. It was pretty cool to see him drafted and become a star in China,” said Heine, who now works in finance in New York City.
Fonts majors in finance and spent the summer of 2024 as an intern at a sales firm, taking a step toward his post-graduation future. But he still has one last dream before he leaves PC.
“Every time I touch the ball next season, I’m putting it up,” said Fonts, who is scoreless in his career as a Friar. “One of them eventually has to drop.”
This story was written as an assignment for the Sports Journalism course taught by Stephen Kurczy, M.S., visiting professor of English, in the Spring 2024 semester. Chris Mancini ’24, from Darien, Connecticut, majored in history at PC. He lives in New York City and works for a company called Guidepoint.
The Fund for Providence College supports the development of academic opportunities at PC, like this sports journalism class. A gift through The Fund for Providence College contributes to the success of faculty scholars and the students they teach.
