He may have been working for the amateur league, but one University of Rhode Island senior’s summer internship was a major deal.
Joe Kenney, 21, spent his summer interning for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks of the Cape Cod Baseball League, recapping games and live-Tweeting the team’s results.
As a journalism major, interning with Cape Cod Baseball League gave Kenney the opportunity to continue pursuing a career as a sports writer, but he admitted he prefers basketball to baseball.
“I’m a big fan of all sports,” Kenney said. “I wouldn’t say baseball is my favorite, but it’s a great opportunity, so I wasn’t going to pass it up.”
A lot of emails and hard work went back and forth on Kenney’s part in order to land this resume builder that’s sure to raise some eyebrows.
“The Cape League is probably the most renowned amateur baseball league in the country,” Kenney said. “Especially in the summer time.”
The league is known to be a feeder for the minor and major leagues, and has helped some players get drafted as high as the top five, according to Kenney.
As a writer for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks, Kenney was able to meet most of the team’s players, whom he described as being “pretty good dudes,” but a few were brought up at the start of the summer. According to Kenney, the league’s former players can be found sprinkled all throughout the country’s major teams.
Most of the league’s current players are underclassmen and many of them come from down South, Kenney said. The players are put up with host families for the summer, but this wasn’t the case for Kenney, however.
Not being a Cape Cod native himself, Kenney had to find a room in Dennis off of Craigslist that he described as being smaller than his freshman year dorm. It wasn’t glamorous, but for him, it served its purpose as just a place to sleep when he wasn’t following the Hyannis Harbor Hawks to all their games at various locations and towns scattered around the Cape.
Fellow intern Alexis Downie, a sophomore at Michigan State University, said that Kenney was a dedicated and hard worker who was also fun to be around.
“He was easy to communicate with and always open to new story ideas,” Downie said. “It was helpful having someone else to bounce ideas off of and get feedback. Joe was also diligent while working, a trait not every writer displays.”
What Kenney didn’t gain in paychecks, he earned in experience. For Kenney, finding a summer internship was never about the money, he just wanted to learn and build his resume. Even though the Hyannis Harbor Hawks had a rough season, Kenney still enjoyed himself this summer.
Now that the summer is over, Kenney is currently interning for the Providence Bruins but has no confirmed plans as to what he’ll be doing after graduation.