Paul Bass Photos
Faith McCallum plans to take the world’s best new young tennis player up on a “mentorship” offer — on Instagram, not Twitter.
Faith (at left in top photo), a student at Barnard Environmental Studies School, revealed that social-networking tip on the court Monday at Westville’s Connecticut Tennis Center.
Faith and fellow students from a host of city schools had just spent 30 minutes in the stands of the main tennis stadium …
… watching 10 grown-ups tell them about all the great “mentorship” programs they’ve started to help the youth. (Gov. Dannel P. Malloy informed them: “We want you to be healthy. We want you to be wealthy. We want you to be wise.”)
The star attraction of the adult — and almost-adult — line-up was 17-year-old Taylor Townsend of Florida. Townsend just went pro over the past year, and has already earned the number-one junior ranking in the world. She stopped by New Haven en route to a tournament in Paris so she could headline an annual free tennis lesson sponsored by First Niagara Bank at the tennis complex. The lesson was for New Haven school kids, part of a year-round program the New Haven Open at Yale runs to introduce city kids to the sport.
Townsend spoke last. She said she’d be “more than happy” to communicate with the kids via her Twitter (@Taylor_Townsen) and Facebook accounts so they can contact her for life advice. (A photo of her posing with the kids and tourney director Anne Worcester was already on her Facebook page by the lesson’s end.)
After the presentation, Faith and the other the kids flooded the courts across the street from the main stadium for lessons from tennis pros.
Faith, who has begun learning the game, had a great time bouncing and hitting the ball. She and her friends picked up on the main subliminal message of the stadium presentation: that Taylor Townsend can be a model for them. “I can grow up to be like her one day,” Faith said.
Asked whether they’ll take up Townsend’s offer to communicate via social media, the gang of girls responded as one with an enthusiastic yes — not on Twitter and Facebook, but on their mobile-phone network of choice: Instagram.
“My name on Instragram is cookie so cute no space underscore!” Faith declared proudly.
For the record, Taylor Townsend is all over Instagram, too.
