Paying to play

For now, there is basketball.

When the time comes, 24-year-old Chris Grounds will figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. Until then, the 2006 graduate of Washington State University is content to play for the Everett Community College men’s team.

And the Trojans are glad to have him.

“Chris provides great leadership … he’s very vocal with his teammates, telling them what they need to do,” Everett coach Larry Walker said. “He’s been a great player for us.”

Although he’s a graduate of a four-year school, Grounds is still a freshman in eligibility. He starts at guard for the Trojans and was selected by his peers to be a team captain. He averages 16.3 points per game and has helped the Trojans to a 9-2 record in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges North Division. At the start of the month, Grounds ranked fifth in the NWAACC in steals (3.2 per game) and ninth in assists (4.9).

For as long as Grounds can remember, basketball has been his passion. His favorite memory of being on the court happened in junior high, when he sank a game-winning half-court shot at the buzzer.

“I dribbled the ball behind my back, there was a guy open under the hoop waving his arms but I just flung it,” Grounds said with a smile. “The ball swished through and I got tackled by the crowd.”

Grounds, a 2002 graduate of Kamiak High School, played varsity basketball his junior and senior years ­— his family moved to Mukilteo from Kent after his sophomore year at Kentridge.

After spending a year at a junior college in California, he transferred to Washington State. He tried for three years to make the Cougars’ roster as a walk-on. He came the closest his junior year, when he was one of six hopefuls to advance beyond the initial tryout.

“I got to practice with the team a couple times,” Grounds said. “It was definitely a wake-up call, the guards were really quick and the big guys were athletic.”

After graduating from WSU with a bachelor’s degree in communications, Grounds spent time in California, trying to break into acting. But in five months he went on just two auditions — he didn’t even speak at one of the tryouts, just made facial expressions — and moved back to Washington.

Then one day last March, he was shooting hoops at the YMCA and a friend suggested he look into playing for Everett Community College.

“He said, ‘You might as well go to Everett, you like running and gunning, it’d be a perfect system for you,’” Grounds said. “That’s where it started.”

Walker also thought Grounds’ fast-paced game would fit well with the Trojans’ up-tempo style and invited him to the team’s open gyms.

“We shoot a lot of threes and push the ball up court,” said Walker, who is in his 23rd year as head coach of the Trojans. “Chris treats the ball like gold every possession — he doesn’t turn it over much.”

Grounds attends classes at Everett CC — theater courses mostly ­— and works for the athletic department monitoring open gyms. He also works at the Boys &Girls Club of Cascade in the before- and after-school programs.

“The basketball brought me to the school, but I still have to take classes,” Grounds said, then added with a laugh, “so, I’m like paying to play.”

Everett was short-handed for its first two league games, both losses. Sophomore co-captain and Stanwood alum Daes Kaufman left one of those games with an injury, and starting center Stephan Waltman, a Monroe alum, missed both because of illness.

“We’ve been at full strength for a while now, so we’ll see how it goes our second time through the league,” Walker said. “I think we have a legit chance (of making the playoffs).”

The Trojans are in second place in the North Division, a game behind Whatcom (10-1). Everett hasn’t been to the NWAACC playoffs since the 2004-05 season, Walker said, and hasn’t played in a league title game since 1995 — a game the Trojans lost.

That’s something Grounds says he wants to change, and not just this season.

“What about back-to-back championships?” he said. “I’d love to come back. I’m having a great time.”

When the time comes, Grounds will decide what comes next — teaching kids, acting, or maybe writing country music.

No matter what, basketball will always be a part of his life.

“I’ve got a lot of time, no matter what happens, so I’m not too worried about the future,” Grounds said. “When I play rec ball now, I see guys in their 40s and 50s playing and that’s what I’ll be doing.

“I’d love to play this game as long as I can.”