Seven Villages, Janet Joakim

When I was going over my list of active clients with the web developer who is taking over most of my clients last February, I told him that I was going to keep the Cape Cod Sports Report site.

I didn’t want to tell him that even though I never said anything to the owner, Frank Finn, I never charged him for updates. Frank had talked about keeping the website updated weekly with news from his weekly paper, year-round, but with a plate that was always so full he had decided to regularly update the paper in the summer months. The website reflected mostly the CC Baseball league news throughout the summer. (see a touching story about Frank and CC Baseball League — here)

Frank, died last month after a battle with aggressive cancer. I never even knew he was ill. I knew from emails in the late summer/early fall as we were wrapping up our communications about website updates, that he had been having tests and that there was something wrong but he never elaborated and I didn’t pry. I was crushed when I learned of his death.

The Cape Cod Sports Report, a weekly newspaper, was a labor of love for Frank. The paper was so incredibly important to kids and families all over, and especially here in Barnstable. He covered everything from kindergarten leagues to high school sports. (And even followed many of the alumni into their college careers.)

He did his best to get updates and reports from coaches and staff from all sorts of leagues and schools. Excited families and kids would cut articles with notes about their achievements out of that little paper. Often those clippings would become part of a college application or recruiting package.

Recently, I received an email from Cathy, his wife, telling me that a couple of Frank’s friends, Sean Wash and Jim Cincotta were going to help her get the paper out and the website back again.

When I asked her more about it, she told me,
“The goal is to carry on Frank’s legacy, and run the local sports stories, across the range of sports. Sean is enthused about the web site, and he’ll be able to keep it more current. Frank had been talking about doing that, but I think the technology scared him, and no one had less time than he did!
Helping to put the paper back out has been very healing for me; I feel as though I am still helping him out, just like I had for so many years.”

I’ll keep you posted here.