Seven years ago, Mike Grinder was benched as a senior basketball player at Seneca Valley High School.

He's come a long way on the court since then — and traveled many miles in the process.

Grinder, who turns 26 Thursday, averaged 27.1 points per game for Casa Gomez Ovalle-Chimaltenango in Guatemala, leading the National Liga Premier circuit in scoring. That season ended in mid-November.

Last winter, he played for Arab Bietjala Sport Club in the Middle East and averaged 28.3 points per game to lead the 18-team Palestinian Basketball Association in scoring.

"I still wanted to play basketball when I got out of college," Grinder said. "One of my coaches talked to us about going on tour through Athletes In Action.

"Idecided to give it a try and I liked it, experiencing different cultures and meeting different people."

Grinder was averaging 14 points per game his senior year with the Raiders when he suddenly found himself on the bench.

"Our team was losing a lot of games, so the coaches decided to bench me and go with younger players to build for the future,"Grinder said.

He began building his own future by enrolling at Gordon (Mass.)College, a Division IIIschool near Boston, where he played for two years. Troy Justic, Grinder's coach there, told him about Athletes In Action.

After two years at Gordon, Grinder transferred to Simpson (Calif.)University, an NAIAschool, and played for the team that finished third in the nation. Grinder averaged 12 points per game there his senior year.

"My coach at Simpson, Wayne Mendezona, told me I had the perfectly paced game to play overseas,"Grinder said. "He said I could score a lot of points there."

And he was right.

After tryouts with the English Basketball League, Grinder wound up in the Palestinian league, which he compared to NCAADivision III basketball in the states.

A 6-foot-3 shooting guard, Grinder proved too much for opposing defenses to handle. He was motivated by being the opposition's main target.

"If you're an American player over there, you better show up to play every night or you're in trouble," he said. "I was the only American player in the (National Liga Premier) league, and they're gunning for you defensively.

"It makes you want to do well."

Grinder had only two months off between the two leagues. He plans to return to his Guatemala team in August to try to win the league title. His team lost in the finals of the 12-team league this year.

In the meantime, he's looking for a team to play for overseas this winter. Morocco, Jordan, Turkey and Romania are some of the places he may wind up.

"I have a lot of contacts out there and I'll wind up somewhere,"Grinder said. "I want to play for four more years overseas and that will be it."

Grinder majored in youth ministry while in school and has made use of his degree through various youth camps and working with youths overseas.

"When I'm through playing, I'm looking into coaching, either overseas, in high school or the college level,"Grinder said.