My Losing Season Summary

In the nonfiction book My Losing Season by Pat Conroy, he mainly expresses all the trials and tribulations he goes through as a child and in his current livelihood as senior at Citadel college. Conroy never had a good relationship with his father, no matter what he did the constant banter and hurtful play from his father always lingered. Conroy had a military family which meant that they were constantly moving every year to two years, this never gave him the chance to really settle in with the community and create steady friendships. This also made it hard for him to adjust to the way that certain area played basketball and how well he fit in with the teams. Basketball made him happy and having such an all-star basketball player as a father

he expected him to help, teach, and guide him through the game. Well the exact opposite happened instead his father was unhelpful and often hurt his feelings never the less which made it even worse considering to his father he was known as a “momma’s boy”. So, whenever he talked to his mom about something that was bothering him his father would poke and prod at him like he was a baby who couldn’t handle himself.

As Conroy grew up he learned how to ignore most of the negativity from his father and focus on the positive things he had going for him, which still wasn’t very much. Pat Conroy had always dreamed of playing college basketball for a sound fundamental and scrappy team. Well he didn’t exactly get what he wanted but his team wasn’t all that bad, the head varsity coach, Mel Thompson was always on Conroy’s back about every little thing possible his senior year at the Citadel. This confused him because Thompson had said they needed someone with his ability on the team but then never played him or became exasperated quickly with his performance even when he did something good on the court. While this would infuriate him, he was after all attending Citadel which was known for creating some of the world’s finest young men, teaching them how to respect there hagiarchies and never to be disrespectful. Going to this school also proposed another problem for him, his fellow peers and the other students in general took him for a sissy, he was very vulnerable to every one of the hurtful comments made by the upper

classmen. This made matters even worse when it came to the relationship of him and his father, not only was he a “momma’s boy” but now he was a “baby” or “sissy” or other forms of spiteful titles his father could come up with. He thought about abandoning the Citadel but did not, in fear that his father would beat his mother, so he stayed and finished out his senior year at the school he despised so much. Things got significantly better in the end for Conroy, he ended up claiming the title for MVP on his team and won the best sportsmanship award. He learned a valuable lesson about life itself, which was if you’ve already hit rock bottom then the only place left you can go is up