heatherb | 
10 9th, 2008| 
As his eyes move from picture to picture, Lance Lee speaks of the Philadelphia tennis fathers with a tinge of detachment. The yellowing encyclopedias from tennis patron William Clothier’s personal archives emits a stuffy attic smell in the Arthur Ashe study room. Any book on the game’s history can be found behind the glass doors that preserve the aging documents.
Lee, director of tennis at Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education, admits that he rarely goes into the room where black and white snapshots of Clothier and other white men gripping wooden racquets garnish the walls.
“As you’ll see there is a common theme of the familiarity of what all the people look like in these pictures, but that’s how the game was in the past,” says Lee of the photos taken in 1934. The West Philly native offers a reason for the obvious omission. “African Americans did contribute and have played tennis since the sport’s conception; it’s just not very widely known.”
Inside the tennis complex, kids of all skill levels are in the middle of Saturday afternoon lessons. Touring the East Falls facility, Lee stands on the tier overlooking 16 indoor courts where instructors correct beginners with awkward serving forms and advance students dart to the baseline to keep balls in play.
With eight outdoor courts, a computer lab and fitness room, the Ashe center is the only tennis facility in the country exclusively for kids ages 4-18. They haven’t turned out a Serena Williams yet, but all of this year’s graduating seniors are in college, and 16 are playing tennis at the university level.
“The odds are most of them won’t go on to play Division I tennis, but the odds are fairly strong that most of them will go on to college,” he says. To stay in the program, grades can’t drop lower than a C average and community service is mandatory.
“If we turn out a great tennis player who turns out to be a champion, that’s just kind of like the icing on the cake, but we’re more concerned with the development of young people in general.”
Tucked away between the gateway to Manayunk and East Falls, the Ashe center is an oasis for many youth who travel from crime-ridden neighborhoods. The outreach program Love 2 Serve buses youth from five recreation centers in the city and helps the students with homework and school projects and offers personalized tennis lessons. Instructors volunteer at regional recreational centers and kids from all points of the city fill the courts after school. Lee and his staff make mentorship a priority.
“It’s positive peer pressure here,” he says. “It’s not cool to go to school and get an F. It’s cool to talk about what college you’re going to and what test you’re studying for and how you did on your SAT.”
The center mixes holistic development and the discipline of tennis with tangible results. Evident in his big brotherly interactions with the youth, Lee, 29, is a key player in its success. As he headed back downstairs to finish the walk-through, parents and students went out of their way to greet Lee who stood comfortably in a pink-striped polo and white Air Force Ones. Read the rest of this entry »
