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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

Sean Cooper wasn’t born with a tennis racket in his hand, but he may as well have been.  

Cooper, now 18 and a senior at West Forsyth, started playing tennis at 4 years old. He has improved so much in those 14 years that he was just recently named the Central Piedmont 4-A boys tennis player of the year, and he also won the conference’s singles championship.

Cooper’s tennis influence came from his grandfather, Doug Cooper, who played tennis at N.C. State University in the early 1960s.

“My grandpa played in college at N.C. State and just from a young age he had me out there playing,” Cooper said. “I just stuck with it.” 

After playing tennis for about three years, it was time for Cooper to start proving himself on the court.  

“I started playing tournaments when I was 7 years old,” Cooper said. “And where I lived at the time my grandpa would come down and he would just play with me, taught me everything. It was all fun.” 

Cooper showed even at that age that he was pretty good. He enrolled at a tennis academy at Waccamaw Regional Tennis Center at Stables Park in Pawleys Island, S.C. He left Pawleys Island and went to Florence Country Club in Florence, S.C. 

“That’s when I started taking it seriously,” he said.  

According to Cooper, it took him about a year before he started becoming a consistent winner.  

“I think I’ve always had the better backhand,” he said. “Kind of unusual for most tennis players, but I think my backhand has always been my better shot. I’ve never really been a huge hitter. I’ve always been more of a grind-it-out kind of guy.” 

After two years of playing competitively, the Coopers moved up here when he was 9 years old. 

“I played all over the state,” Cooper said. “I went back to South Carolina and played some there over the years.” 

Like many sports, both as a youth and as an adult, it was a roller-coaster ride.  

“It definitely was up and down,” Cooper said. “But I think out of the past two years I’ve really started to play some good tennis for myself.” 

Even though he was playing youth tournaments it gave him a chance to see the world. 

“Honestly, I never really viewed it as a grind as a kind,” Cooper said. “I see it more of a grind now just because I’m older. Yeah, I was more competitive. When I was like 9, 10 years old I obviously had a lot of fun with it because I was just able to win every match without really having to do much. It was just such a low level of playing whenever you’re that young.” 

According to Cooper, he was top 10 in his age bracket in South Carolina before moving here. 

“It’s tougher up here, especially now that I’m older,” he said. “I’m currently ranked like 70 in the state. So, it’s obviously gotten to be a little bit more competitive. These guys in Charlotte and Raleigh, they don’t give me a lot. I struggle against those guys.” 

Playing against players in bigger cities has helped him improve. 

“It’s a lot tougher,” Cooper said. “They are able to pick on me a little bit, whereas the Winston-Salem guys, I have my dominance over them.” 

Cooper went to Clemmons Middle School and played there in sixth grade.  

“I played No. 1 as a sixth grader,” he said. “I won every match except one. I played this guy who ended up being a really good high school player. He beat me pretty badly. He probably still would. Other than that, I was winning everything else.” 

Following Cooper’s sixth-grade year at Clemmons Middle, COVID-19 canceled his last two years of playing there. 

“I honestly didn’t play much. I got discouraged with tennis around that time,” he said. “To not be able to play as much, I had a tough time transitioning from like 10 and unders to like 12 and 14 unders, just the level gap. It was tough for me. I was getting burnt out.” 

Cooper dabbled in lacrosse at the time, but the magnetic pull of tennis kept pulling him back in. He started going to clinics at Taylor Tennis Center in Clemmons. 

“I started doing that about three to four times a week,” he said. “And I just started playing tournaments again and found a groove ever since.” 

Sara Cranford has been Cooper’s head coach at West Forsyth all four years. 

“I knew that Sean had been playing since he was a kid,” she said. “His grandfather played tennis in college at N.C. State and taught Sean to play. Sean often calls his grandfather to tell him how he does after our matches.”

When Cooper arrived at West Forsyth as a freshman he was humbled as a tennis player.  

“(I was) on the bench,” he said. “We had a good team, and I had a bad head space. I would panic in the challenge matches, and I wouldn’t be able to play as good as I really was.” 

“That bad head space caused me to freeze mentally and physically on the court.”

“I would get super-nervous and think about all the mistakes instead of like what’s controllable. And I was super-young and immature mentally,” Cooper said.

Cooper said that he “acted out” on the tennis court. 

“A lot of yelling,” he said. “A lot of racket-throwing. A lot of stuff that I wouldn’t recommend doing.” 

Cranford saw Cooper’s emotions a little differently. 

“Sean is an emotional player,” she said. “I have never thought of Sean having a temper, but he does have a big personality and that comes out on the court. He has learned to channel his emotions such that they are an asset to him on the court. His personality and people skills are also an asset to our team.” 

That channeling of emotions made Cooper better. He played No. 3 singles his sophomore and junior seasons, and he played No. 1 singles this season.  

“Honestly, I think it was all me,” he said. “I let it happen over time.” 

His game and his mental space exponentially increased. 

“Definitely a lot of mental improvement and physical improvement,” Cooper said. “I played a lot of tournaments from the end of freshman season to the beginning of sophomore season, every weekend I was at a tournament.” 

In fact, he’s turned his emotions into a positive.

“Sean is a big part of the camaraderie and unity within our team. He brings the fun on the bus (he plays music and gets everyone singing), he makes others laugh and he always has a good time,” Cranford said. “More importantly, Sean supports his teammates. When he is not on the court, he is always on the sidelines cheering enthusiastically for someone else. He has a perpetually happy disposition and a magnetic personality and that comes out in everything that he does. Sean definitely makes our season more fun and exciting, and I will miss him next year.” 

Despite playing No. 3 singles in his sophomore and junior seasons for the Titans there was a ray of sunshine.

“I definitely improved from sophomore to junior year, a lot mentally,” Cooper said. “But I felt like I was getting better. I knew senior season I could overtake the one spot.” 

According to Cooper he went undefeated during his junior season as a singles player. However, he had a knee injury in last year’s conference tournament. 

“I felt like I was deserving of playing two last year,” he said. “The guy (John Howell) that was playing two, him and I have always been neck and neck. He’s playing two this year. I overtook him this year.” 

All of that traveling to play in myriad tournaments has paid dividends. Not only has Cooper had a successful season, so has the team. West Forsyth finished the regular season 13-2 overall and 11-1 in the conference.

“Playing in the offseason, year-round and competing in tournaments has helped him develop his game. He has come back each season a stronger, better player,” said Cranford. “Sean has a whole-court, complete game that is unusual for someone his age. He is comfortable pounding the ball from the baseline, but he also loves to come in and volley, and he can slice the ball on either side to change up pace and spin.

“He is able to mix it up and never lets the other player get in a rhythm. He is constantly moving and loves to sneak into the net. Because he has such a complete game, he is an effective singles and doubles player.” 

In doubles last season, Cooper began playing with Howell and he finished last season playing No. 2 doubles with Aiden Seymour. 

“I thought we worked well together,” Cooper said. “I felt like I needed to pick him up a little bit sometimes and get him going. I felt like I was good at that.”

This season, Cooper has played No. 2 doubles with Levi Trenchard, who plays No. 4 singles for the Titans.

“I think it’s good for us because I can be dominant on court two,” Cooper said.

Cooper made the big decision before his senior year to not pursue a tennis career in college. Instead, he’s going to go to East Carolina University as a student with a major in exercise physiology. 

“I just wanted to become a business owner and focus on a career,” he said.  

That big decision in his life helped to relax him. 

“Tennis is a tough mental game. Sean has found the difficult balance this year of playing competitively and giving 100 percent in every match, while still enjoying it and having fun,” Cranford said. “That balance has been the key to his incredibly successful season.“ 

The conference tournament was recently played at Hanes Park. Cooper defeated Bradyn Neal of Reagan 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the singles championship. 

“Bradyn came out hot,” Cooper said. “He came out playing really well. But I knew after he had played three matches, and I played three matches, I just waited for him to kind of stop playing that good. I knew he couldn’t keep that level up so after the first set I was a little annoyed because I was tired, very tired after playing three matches that day. I had to win two full sets. But I knew that I would be willing to deal with being tired and fighting for it anyway.” 

Cooper isn’t done this season. West Forsyth was named the No. 6 seed in the NCHSAA Class 4-A tournament and played host to No. 27 Western Guilford Monday night in the first round. In addition, Cooper will be playing this weekend in the Midwest Regional at UNC Greensboro as a singles player.

“I have been so happy he was able to bounce back from that and have a fantastic senior season,” Cranford said. “Sean was undefeated at the No. 1 spot in the conference during the regular season, he won the CPC singles tournament, and he was voted CPC Player of the Year. We have had some really good teams and players at West Forsyth the past few years and I have never had a player accomplish all three of those.” 

With graduation from West Forsyth coming in less than a month, going to college at East Carolina isn’t too far off for Cooper. He even plans on playing club tennis there. 

“Some things in life are kind of hard,” he said. “I think tennis has always been a good escape for me. And it’s always been something that, it’s like a craft to me, too. I think I’ll always need tennis, that athletic validation.”