It's a good thing that Wilde Lake coach Ron Shelton believes in sharing. Several years ago, when he found a pair of similar looking middle school girls hitting tennis balls on the Wilde Lake High tennis courts, he could have told them to get lost. Instead, after they became emboldened enough to not scamper away when the high schoolers took the court for practice, he allowed them to stick around.

"At first they left on their own," Shelton said of Anastasia English, now a Wilde Lake freshman, and her sister, Epiphany English, now a sophomore. "We were working with the team, they were hitting on the end court. They asked if they could stay and hit around and I said sure."

Coaches and players watched in awe as the Englishes smashed booming forehands to each other. Finally one day, Shelton approached the girls' mother, who was sitting in her car watching, and asked where they went to school. It turned out they were students at nearby Harper's Choice Middle School and they would be attending Wilde Lake High.

"He asked us where we were going and we said 'Wilde Lake,' and that made him really happy," said Epiphany, the Columbia Flier/Howard County Times girls tennis Player of the Year.

"I said 'Great!'," recalls the proud coach.

Anastasia and Epiphany began playing tennis at the urging of their grandfather, a recreational tennis player who watched Venus and Serena Williams on television and "thought that would be good for us," said Epiphany, who now considers Spanish clay court specialist Rafael Nadal her favorite player.

Thousands of parents and grandparents probably had similar aspirations for their offspring, but it turned out that Anastasia and Epiphany were actually pretty good, exhibiting natural strength and quick reflexes.

Still only a sophomore, Epiphany English has blossomed into the county's best young girls tennis player, though it was a very competitive field this season. After losing to Atholton junior Julia Southerland in the semifinals of the county tournament, she squared off against younger sister, Anastasia, in the third-place match.

Epiphany won in straight sets. She says that she and Anastasia are used to playing against each other, but that Anastasia "gets really nervous" when she has to play her older sister and may have a mental block, as if she knows that she is not supposed to win.

No matter who wins, Shelton has a valuable pair of players in Anastasia and Epiphany. With those two winning nearly all of their matches, Shelton needs only one of his three doubles teams to win for the team to win outright.

"If I can win just one doubles, it puts the girls in a pretty good spot," said Shelton, who has already penciled in English and English at the top of his ladder for the next two seasons.

English made her biggest impact in the regional tournament, where she defeated county champion Haley Katsman in the regional semifinals and went on to defeat Southerland in a come-from-behind, three setter to become the Region V champion.

She did not fare as well at the state tournament, where she lost in the first round, but she is already looking forward to taking the next step.

"In (the state tournament), I cracked under the pressure, I've never had so many people watching me," said English, who admitted that she was a little nervous playing in front of a crowd. "Next year I definitely want to make it back to states and make it farther than I did this year."

Having just completed her sophomore year, English still has two more chances to make her mark at the state tournament. And after that, Shelton sees even bigger opportunities for her.

"By the time she's a senior, she could play at a Division I school. Right now she could play somewhere in college."

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