Since my experience with the Hyannis Harbor Hawks has ended, I can reflect on what a special summer it truly was. I'm extremely thankful for the opportunities given to me by both St. Lawrence and the Hyannis Organization. Working in the Cape Cod Baseball League has always been a dream of mine, and it is still surreal to me that this is now a reality. When I first arrived at McKeon Park, I was anxious and excited to meet over sixty new people but also see some familiar faces. As the first few days trekked on, this group felt special, both on the field with the baseball team, and off of with the intern group. This assumption of mine turned out to be correct. Although our team lost in the first round of the playoffs in the prestigious summer league, we had all accomplished so much and felt like we made the most out of our experiences.
Before this summer began, I conducted three learning goals. My first learning goal was to improve my sports writing skills such as making sure my stories are in MLA format and proper grammar use. I've taken classes here at St. Lawrence that have refined my sports writing, and even worked within the Sports Information Department. This internship was helpful to me because I had little to no experience outside of SLU. Now, as I am entering my senior year, I have an entire eight weeks under my belt of working closely with one specific team. The writing team I was on consisted of me, Mike Maynard (UMass), and Payton Kelly (Western Michigan). Both writers were extremely beneficial to me, as I was able to bounce ideas off of them, and get edits from them to make sure my stories were clean enough to publish in terms of spelling mistakes and such. Our duties as team beat writers were to write a game story after every contest (the season was 41 games long), interview players and coaches on the field or before the games, and look for feature, collaborative, or profile stories to publish. As a team, we published over 60 pieces.
My second learning goal during my Harbor Hawks writing internship was to build connections. While this isn't something that can be measured like my writing skills, I am very confident I built loads of amazing connections and lifelong friends. Something very cool I was able to be a part of thanks to this internship was meeting Alanna Rizzo of MLB Network. Rizzo, a longtime reporter for the Rockies, Dodgers, and now High Heat (a TV show on MLB Network) had tons of insight to give to me and many other CCBL interns. We spoke with her for over two hours in a hotel conference room, and she was very helpful with tips on how to get a foot-in in the sports industry, and why following one's dream is important. Along with Rizzo, the amount of friendships I've made and people I would love to work with later in life increased by the dozens. Without this internship, none of this would have been possible.
Lastly, my third and final learning goal was to get comfortable interviewing players and coaches. While I had some prior experience with this, I entered Hyannis with a true lack of confidence and trust in myself to think of good questions to ask athletes. I can confidently say that now that my internship has ended, I'm fully in my comfort zone when it comes to approaching players, how to do it in a kind and respectful manner, and how to form relationships with them. With the help of Mike and Payton, oftentimes we would hit the field together after the game and ask questions to whomever we needed for the story as a team. This both helped me become more confident in myself, and also learn from things they asked as well. We conducted over 120 interviews with players and coaches from Hyannis this summer.