(Photo Credit: Kelly Shea/AIC Athletics)

Aaron Grounds is a 6 feet 2 inches tall freshman forward for the Yellow Jackets of American International College (AIC). He makes his living in front of the net providing screens to make goalies’ lives difficult, while providing solid help defending in his own end. The Jamestown, North Dakota native compares his style to Ottawa Senators’ forward Austin Watson. Both are physical customers who use their size to contribute both on and off the score sheet. For instance, in AIC’s 3-1 win over Bentley today, he put home his second goal of the season while playing a defensive role on the fourth line. Over time look for Grounds to use more of his frame and add some more skill in his four years in Springfield.

When he filled out forms during his draft year indicating strengths and weaknesses, the physical nature of his game was near the top of his positives. Over his time learning from AIC Head Coach Eric Lang and his staff, Grounds will look to grow his capabilities to use time and space on the rush and get a bit more creative with his options in the offensive zone, especially on breakaways.

With all of that being said, Grounds had an interesting introduction to hockey, his first and really only sport he has played consistently growing up. His mother, Kristy, was a daycare provider when Grounds was younger, and his first experience with hockey gear came when he saw the gear of one of the older girls at daycare when she brought it in that day That was the first experience with anything hockey related he had as neither Kristy, or his father Micheal played hockey.

Ever since then, the mission has been simple for Grounds. As he said, “ever since I was a little kid I’ve had this dream of playing in the NHL and I don’t plan on letting anybody stop me anytime soon.”

Grounds moved to Minnesota when he was 12, and credits the larger availability of ice in Minnesota for his ability to continue training over summers a bit easier, along with having more time to hone his craft.

As for getting to AIC, well, like a lot of America, his introduction to the Yellow Jackets came when they earned a win over number one ranked St. Cloud State in the first round of the 2019 West Regional in Fargo. From there he did his research and had a little bit of help from one of his assistant coaches during his time with the Fargo Force, Eli Rosendahl. He reached out to Lang and his staff, and it was not long before the connection was made. After that momentous win, and weekend for AIC, Eric Lang told the media he had a lot of good conversations with recruits, and opened a lot of people’s eyes. One pair of those eyes now plays for the AIC Family. How Eric Lang runs his program in all facets of it, combined with the culture there are two of the main reasons Grounds is playing for AIC.

All of Lang’s talented staff takes time each day to make sure their players are doing ok in all facets of their lives. Simple things like asking a question about his parents make a big difference to Grounds and show that the AIC Family the program talks about is a lived, not just promoted value. Lang and his staff value the whole person, not just what shows up on the ice or stat sheet.

Finally, regarding the Yellow Jackets this year, Grounds describes the Yellow Jackets’ program quite well as a small budget one, but he notes that “we have something that I value way more, which is our family which is incredibly important, we will outwork anyone on the ice.” To sum things up, his view is one more of college hockey is coming around to regarding AIC. As Grounds said “we’re starting to be a team that people know about and don’t like to play.”

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