Cooper Grim put high expectations on himself entering the 2025 boys tennis season.

The Heartland Christian sophomore already made it to the second round of the state tournament last year, and he wanted to make a deeper run this spring.

“It feels good to be here, but I want to go all the way this year,” Grim said. “I’m still not satisfied.”

With a year under his belt, Grim already knew what to expect from varsity tennis. But his sophomore season provided an opportunity to work on the mental game.

His focus improved, and it paid off during clutch moments of matches. By the end of the regular season, he posted an 8-0 record. That was a good springboard for wins in the sectional and district tournaments.

“We had a lot of matches in the local area,” Grim said. “I’d say my hardest match was against Poland, Andrew Aey. I think he was my hardest match in the regular season, but I had a good regular season. It was a good lead-up to the postseason.”

His postseason run began in the Division II sectional round. As the top seed, Grim took down West Branch’s Jeremy Augustein 6-0, 6-0 before knocking off Salem’s Avery Yerkey in the quarterfinals 6-0, 6-0. Then he got the better of Ursuline’s Brady Frank in the semifinals 6-0, 6-1 and rounded out the weekend with a win over No. 2 seed Andrew Aey, of Poland, in the sectional final 6-2, 6-1.

At the district tournament, he beat Strongsville’s Leo Willhoite 6-1, 6-0 to open play, then beat Hawken’s Nihai Gummadala 6-0, 6-1 before besting Strongsville’s Vivaan Moghekar 6-3, 6-0.

Grim will open play today with Lexington sophomore Tony Palmer. The Heartland Christian standout doesn’t have much information on Palmer, but he knows that his end of the bracket will feature a number of challenges if he wants to reach the finals.

“I’m sure (Palmer’s) a good player, because you have to be good to make it here,” Grim said. “If I get through him, I’ll probably have the best guy in D2, so that will be really hard. And if I get through the quarterfinals, I’ll likely have to play the guy that I barely beat in the semifinals at districts.

“I definitely have to be focused, on top of my game the whole time and in the right headspace.”

Since he already made one trip to state, this year’s journey to The College of Wooster feels just like any other tournament for Grim. But the tennis postseason is a grind over a few weeks.

That’s where Grim’s experience and maturity come into play. He knows that he needs to “stay fresh, both mentally and physically” if he wants to take the top spot this year.

“This is probably my favorite tournament throughout the whole year,” Grim said. “I always try to be extremely focused and in the right frame of mind whenever I come in. I want to go as far as I can because I love to represent my school and see how far I can go for them.”