Their senior year at Riverton High in Salt Lake Valley, twin brothers and tennis partners Blake and Bo Nemelka placed second in the state doubles championship. As 18-year-old Utah State University freshmen, they competed against 20-year-old champions from Alaska, and Sweden and Italy. “The Swedes and Italians were the best in their countries. We were second in Utah,” says Blake.

“As the new kids on the team, the worst kids on the team, you wonder, ‘Do I deserve to be here?’” Bo recalls. Their uncle, the coach, expected as much from them as he did of everyone else.

To compete, the twins had to hit the ball harder and increase the velocity of their serve from 80 to 120 miles per hour. They learned to hit the ball harder. The serve has a ways to go. At age 19, on the verge of separating for the first time in their lives for LDS missionary service in Peru and Mexico, they’re still growing.

In tennis and in class, whenever you move up a level, it takes a while to adapt and regain your confidence. “At USU you have to hit the books harder than you do in high school,” says Blake. “It’s a big jump. No one tells you to do your homework. You’re the one who has to deal with the consequences. If you fail a class, you blow $1,000.”

“Your freshman year is like being a 7th grader all over again,” says Bo.

They were up to the challenge. “Wake up, go to class, make phone calls on behalf of a college fundraising drive, practice tennis, teach tennis, home by 10, dinner, bed” — that was the daily drill that filled the pages of their day planners and covered the cost of their education. They took classes for sophomores and juniors, and by the end of their freshman year their GPA nearly equaled their 4.0 average in high school.

At an early age Blake and Bo shouldered more responsibility than boys twice their age. They started their first business in elementary school — a home repair and yard service. When they were 11, their father, a millionaire contractor, had to have a heart transplant.  Then their parents parted, and the twins worked nights and weekends to help support the downsized household.

“You name it, we’ve gone through it as a family,” says Blake. “It takes a lot to scare us.”

“Some people are risk takers. Other people need the security of a steady job with a predictable paycheck. We’re risk takers,” says Bo.

Despite the upheaval at home, the twins excelled in high school and completed nearly a year’s worth of first-year college coursework. They took second in the nation in the Future Business Leaders of America contest. They had 15 minutes to devise a business plan for a mock family pharmacy business that couldn’t compete  with the new Wal-Mart in town. Keep your location, the twins and their third team member advised, and carve a unique niche for yourself on the Internet with a home delivery business.

With the right mindset, the twins could achieve similar objectives at Utah State. That’s why they came. You could move out on your own and “be your own person and make your own decisions,” as Bo puts it — without further dislocation. Home is a few hours south, on the other side of the Wellsville Mountains, and their business finance major will build on their work experiences with their biological dad and step-dad, who buys foreclosed homes, and renovates and resells them.

When the twins return from their missions in two years, they hope to be as big as their 6’6” dad. Then they’ll really be able to smash the ball. Blake is aiming for an MBA and Bo a law degree. After that, a joint real estate venture seems likely. “We’ll be our own bosses and we’ll make a lot of money,” says Bo. more