Flathead faithful have known for awhile, but Wednesday made it official.

Flathead High School's Josh Harris will be a University of Montana football player.

The 6-foot-5, 210-pound defensive end sat in the FHS weight room Wednesday - flanked by his parents, two brothers and sister - in front of two local media outlets and posed with the contract that he received, signed and sent back to the UM Wednesday morning.

A little anti-climactic?

"Yeah, a little bit," Harris said. "It wasn't too bad."

Harris garnered interest from Montana State, West Point, Harvard, Yale, BYU and Carroll College but finally decided on UM about a month and a half ago. During his official visit to the Missoula school a couple weeks ago, he gave his verbal commitment.

"Once I got down there and saw the environment and met the coaching staff and players, I liked what I saw," Harris said. "I talked to some of the NAIA schools in Montana and MSU, but the Griz were a lot closer and a better program.

"I met coach (Bobby Hauck) last year at the end of the school year and he said he was recruiting me. But then I didn't hear from him again until the end of the summer, during football season. He gave me a call and asked if I wanted to come watch a game. So I went down and watched the Northern Colorado game."

The two-time all-conference pick registered 47 tackles his senior season with seven sacks and 14 quarterback hurries. He was named the Braves' defensive MVP.

"He is a fierce competitor and one of the toughest players I've ever coached," said Flathead coach Russ McCarvel, who also teaches him in pre-calculus. "He's a great kid and a great student. He's a great role model for the younger players to see what you can do with hard work."

As a basketball player for the 10-5 Braves, Harris is currently averaging 8.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game next to 6-8 junior Brock Osweiler.

For Hauck and the northwest Montana contingent of Griz Nation, Harris' signing has relit the torch that was nearly extinguished by the graduation of Lex Hilliard and Brandon Dwyer.

"We've had some good kids from Flathead come through the program," Hauck said. "With Lex (Hilliard) and (Brandon) Dwyer heading out the door, it's going to be nice having another Flathead kid coming in."

Hauck said it was Harris' size and speed, mixed with a good temperament, that turned him on to the recruit.

"He's got a great frame and he's a good athlete with good speed - that's a good place to start," Hauck said. "His father played here and has an affinity for the program, which adds another component to us recruiting him.

"He's got a great temperament. We'll play him at end and we've watched how he competes on the basketball court. When you add all those things up, we think he's got what it takes for us to eventually turn him into what we think he can become."

At just 210 pounds, Harris has a ways to go before measuring up to the likes of Big Sky Conference defensive ends. But he is on track. And Hauck said Harris reminds him a little of Dustin Dlouhy.

"He will be a big man when he's done," Hauck said. "(Kroy) Biermann wrestled at 215 pounds in high school and he ended up being 250. Dlouhy was 205 when he started. We don't sweat that too much. We're going to develop him.

"He's not unlike Dlouhy, who was able to grow into what we thought he could be."

Hauck will be in Kalispell tonight at the Hilton Garden Inn and Convention Center, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., to celebrate the signings. All fans are invited. Admission is $10.

Harris plans to redshirt during his freshman season.

"Our hope is for everyone to redshirt," Hauck said. "But that sometimes isn't the case. We won't know until the end of August if he will redshirt."

But Harris understands the importance of not playing the first year.

"I need to get stronger and learn the defense and that would be the best way to do it," he said. "If it was up to me, I'd start as soon as possible. But that will all depend on how hard I work.

"They haven't exactly said what their plans are for me. I know I will take part in their training program this summer. It's a good program were all the kids gain huge amounts of weight. I'm pretty sure I'll put on 20 to 30 pounds."

Harris said he doesn't know anybody in the program to mentor him, but is sure he'll learn from his teammates. In the meantime, he said he gets great advice from his dad - Greg, who was an All-Big Sky defensive tackle for the Grizzlies between 1971-75.

"Josh is a tremendous athlete," said Greg Harris, who played for two years in the NFL with the Jets and 49ers. "He's got a 34-inch vertical leap. He's 6-5 with long arms so he'll be able to knock down passes pretty good. He's fast out in the open field, too. Quick is one thing, but to be fast in the open field is another. He's a fast, all-around athlete."

Greg Harris played for FHS at 200 pounds. He gained 60 pounds at UM while using lots of steroids, which were legal at the time. He added another 30 pounds in the NFL.

"Steroids just aren't worth it," Greg said. "They affect everybody differently. The normal guy was injecting maybe 15 milligrams of dynoball. We were doing 65 to 85 milligrams a day. Now I'm full of tumors, but they are all benign. But one friend died in Missoula. They affect everyone different and I've known to keep Josh off of them."

Coincidentally, Josh may follow his older brother - Tiger, who will graduate from UM in May with a degree in criminal justice - into some field of law enforcement. But the 3.6 GPA student hasn't decided yet.

"I have no idea what I'm going to major in," Josh Harris said.

One thing is for sure, Harris may have some big shoes to fill in regards to using one of the scholarships that was vacated by Kroy Biermann - Montana's defensive end who won the school's first Buck Buchanan Award for the nation's defensive player of the year.

"He set a good example and a good standard of what I need to do in the offseasons and next season to become the best," Josh said.