Submitted photo. Heartland Christian’s Cooper Grim poses with the Division II boys singles state championship trophy on Friday at Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason.

Heading into last week’s Division II state tennis tournament, Cooper Grim was determined to bring home that coveted state championship.

The Heartland Christian junior had dreamt for years about this opportunity, and he was never going to settle for anything less.

Now, after making his way through the bracket, winning four straight matches against the state’s best, Grim is bringing home hardware after finally capturing the Division II boys singles state title on Friday at Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason.

“It just hasn’t felt real for a little while because I spent a lot of time just imagining this being able to happen,” Grim said in a phone interview. “Now that it actually happened, it definitely didn’t feel real at first. Just felt a lot of relief because that’s been one of my biggest goals in my whole tennis career, to be able to win a state title. So I felt a lot of relief knowing that I was able to make it happen because this is one of my last shots with it being my junior year.”

As a freshman and sophomore, Grim also made it to state, but bowed out in the quarterfinals both years after winning his first match.

This year, in addition to getting better as a player, Grim felt he was in a better position to make a deeper run and finally challenge for the title.

“I think just my overall ability to handle adversity was a lot better this year because there was a lot of it that came my way this year,” Grim said. “Almost all weekend I had adversity of some sort. So I would just say being able to handle that because it’s a very mental tournament, there’s a lot of pressure involved and a lot of people are there.”

Grim’s mother, Michele, who’s also his coach at Heartland Christian, is well-versed in helping guide him through those tough situations.

She made it to the Class A-AA girls singles state championship match in 1988 while at East Palestine and went on to play college tennis at Tennessee, where she was a part of three NCAA tournament teams with the Lady Vols. She also went on to coach the women’s tennis team at Youngstown State for almost 15 years, and even coached the YSU men for several years during her tenure.

“Whatever I’m going through on the court, whatever kind of pressure I have, she’s been through that 10 times over,” Grim said of his mother. “So she’s had so much experience in all fronts of tennis. So just having her on the court whenever those tough moments happen, she’s just able to calm me down and give me advice on how to recover from that. It really made a huge difference this weekend.”

Grim began the tournament by making quick work of Summit Country Day’s Tyler Lammers in the first round on Thursday morning, winning 6-1, 6-1 in straight sets.

Later that day in the quarterfinals, Grim faced his first bout with adversity, as he fell into an 0-4 deficit in the first set against Bexley’s Amiya Bowles. He battled back to level the match and win the first set 7-6 in a tiebreak. He then cruised in the second set 6-0 to take the match in straight sets.

“In the first match, I was feeling pretty good. I felt my game was pretty good overall, and I was able to get through that one pretty routinely,” Grim said. “In the quarterfinals, I came out pretty nervous because I’d never gotten past the quarterfinals before and I really wanted this year to be the year. I came out and wasn’t really playing with conviction at the beginning. So once I was able to adjust to the environment and just calm myself down a bit, I was able to do a lot better and get through that one.”

Heading into the semifinals on Friday, Grim was faced with a familiar foe in Orange’s Ilya Shcherbakov. Grim had already faced Shcherbakov the week before at the district tournament, winning in straight sets. But the two also practice together often, so they are very familiar with each other’s game.

“It was just a complete battle the whole way,” Grim said. “I knew it was going to be like that because I played him several times and I practice against him all the time, so I know he’s a really good player and I knew I was going to have to earn every single point.”

During the grueling three-set match, Grim pulled out a tight opening set 7-5 after breaking Shcherbakov’s serve in the last game. Then Grim jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second set, but Shcherbakov fought back to take the set 7-6 in a tiebreak, which included him fighting off two match points. In the third set, Grim dug deep and pulled it out 6-1 to clinch the match and his spot in the final.

“I just had to mentally regroup after I was basically at the finish line, it felt like,” Grim said. “Then next thing I know, we’re going into a third set and it’s anyone’s match. So I think I did a great job at being able to mentally recover and go out and play some really good tennis in the third set, even though I was feeling pretty tired physically.”

Grim was drained physically and mentally after his three and a half-hour match in the morning. But with his ultimate goal of a championship within reach, he willed himself to victory, fending off Milton Union’s Levi Brumbaugh 6-3, 6-1 in the final that afternoon to clinch the title.

“I’d gone that far, and like I said earlier, that was one of my biggest goals,” Grim said. “So I knew I couldn’t let myself being tired affect me because I had one match left. I knew that I wasn’t 100% there and giving my best, I would have absolutely regretted it for a long time. So I was able to play probably my best and cleanest match of the whole tournament.”