Grim’s ready to fly high
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EAST PALESTINE -- Heartland Christian freshman Cooper Grim is about to play on the biggest stage of his early career at the Div. II boys state tennis tournament at the College of Wooster & Aspen Racquet Club.
Grim won five sectional and three district matches, while only losing one district match on his way to securing one of the five spots for state.
"It is definitely amazing," Grim said. "I set the expectation for myself to go to state, so it feels good to achieve that. I am really looking forward to going there and it is going to be a great experience playing at the highest level of high school tennis."
Grim, ranked as the third-best freshman in the state by Tennis Recruiting Network, put a lot of hard work and effort to be where he is at.
"It takes a lot of hard work," Grim said. "You always have to be focused and make sure that you are taking every moment as it is and not taking it for granted."
Grim was introduced to the game of tennis by his mom and coach, Michele (McMillen) Grim, who finished second at state her senior year representing East Palestine and then went on to play at the University of Tennessee. She was an assistant coach for Florida State before becoming head coach at Youngstown State University, a position she held for 14 years.
"She has been through it all and knows what it takes," Cooper said. "She introduced it to me and has been my coach for all of these years."
Michele is excited that her son is starting to reach the same goals that she reached in high school.
"It is pretty cool," she said. "Going into this when he started at the age of four I never thought that far ahead to think that he would be doing the same thing and going down the same path."
While Michele is happy that he is reaching goals early in his tennis career, she is also happy to be there to guide him as his coach.
"It's awesome," she said. "I have been doing it from the very beginning and it has been like a journey. He is starting to really become mature and really starting to learn the game of tennis. It takes a long time to really understand it and I feel like now that he is 15 you can see things coming together."
Before high school, Cooper played in a lot of Unites States Tennis Association tournaments.
"That's pretty much what all of the people played," he said. "It is basically individual tournaments and you just go and play. The more you win the more points you get and you just try to get your ranking higher because as your ranking gets higher you can get into bigger tournaments."
While some high school tennis players only play a couple of years before leaving the sport, Cooper plans to play all the way through high school.
"I definitely plan on playing my whole high school career," he said. "As long as anything doesn't happen such as an injury or anything. I definitely do want to have the best career that I can and represent Heartland really well and see how well I can do and how far I can go."
Grim has the advantage of having his own tennis court at his home in East Palestine where he can practice anytime, especially during the summer into early fall season.
"It is really nice," he said. "It saves a lot of hassle having to get into the car and drive 20 minutes to practice and it is really fun, too. The scenery around here makes it kind of relaxing to play here sometimes."
Cooper is happy to be representing Heartland Christian at the state tournament.
"I am really excited to go and represent Heartland," he said. "I love going to Heartland and I just love the message that they spread."
"He started off early on in the preschool at Heartland Christian," Michele said. "My daughter was at Heartland as well. We had friends that were there and the environment was very good. I felt like it was a great place for both of my kids to be."
The Heartland Christian tennis team didn't have a complete team to compete in regular-season matches with only two players, Cooper and fellow freshman Jacob Vande Kappelle. Both payed in sectionals in singles.
"How it worked was we were a bit too late to the idea of having a team," Grim said. "Me and my friend Jacob, who is also a freshman were allowed to represent in sectionals, so we got to play sectionals. It has really been a fun experience going to sectionals with him because usually when I'm playing tennis I don't really have any of my friends from school with me. It is just usually just people from different states and stuff."
Grim has been at the courts at the College of Wooster & Aspen Racquet Club, but it has been a while since he has returned.
"I have been there before, but it was a really long time ago. I'd say about four years ago," Grim said. "I have never played on the outdoor courts that I will be playing on there, but I have played on the indoor courts that I could possibly be playing on if there is a rain delay."
Cooper said he has not seen his upcoming opponent, Ottawa Hills sophomore Jack Kayse, but has seen most of the other players who advanced to state.
"Some kids that I know have told me about him, but I have never really seen him and I don't know really how he plays," Cooper said. "I will be kind of going into it and just playing my game and kind of accessing what I adjustments I need to make while I'm in the match. I will be seeing a lot of kids that I know just from these tournament and the USTA tournaments."
Grim will face Kayse in the first round at 9 a.m. Thursday.
State notes
• Grim plans to play college tennis and later become an airline pilot. Grim has taken flight lessons at Beaver County Airport in nearby Chippewa, Pennsylvania.
"When I grow up I really want to be an airline pilot," Grim said. "I really enjoy playing tennis. My goal with tennis is to play at a high level in college. Hopefully to play Division I college tennis, but yeah that is definitely my dream to be an airline pilot once I'm out of college and I'm an adult."