Poetry Collection- Brandon Castillo

Jack Ridl has written multiple books including Practice to Walk Like a Heron, Losing Season, Broken Symmetry, and Against Elegies. He has won multiple awards including "Michigan Professor of the Year" in 1996 by the Carnegie Foundation, one of the 100 most influential sports educators in America by the Institute for International Sports, and had his book Broken Symmetry selected by the Society of Midland Authors as the best book of poetry in 2006. More than 75 of his former students have become published authors. He is son of the famed Pitt Basketball Coach Buzz Ridl.


The collection titled Losing Season describes a high school basketball program in which nothing seems to go right this particular season. Ridl uses every aspect and perspective to get his point across. In "Manager", Ridl describes the dream of a student manager on the team dreaming of being able to get off the bench and score a game-winning shot. Another poem describes how an assistant thinks of taking the head coach's job and how much better he would be at it. Ridl talks about the views of so  many people during this losing season including the referees, players, teachers, band directors, barbers. The theme throughout is losing and how people deal with it. He is able to relate to a multitude of people because of the variety of perspectives that there are and the truth in which we are able to see in each of these poems.


In the Last Seconds


Coach tries to press another loss
into the back court of his brain.
The players feel their blood quiet,
return to its common wander.
The fans, shaking their heads
like tired dogs, put on their coats,
hats, gloves, leave the bleachers,
go back to what's always there.
The cops shrug, step outside.
Vendor starts counting the till.
In the snow, the parking lot attendants
pierce the darkness with their flashlights.
Coach's wife looks at her hands.
Coach's daughter stares into the rafters,
listens to the words, pretends
they are dead leaves caught in the air.
Manager sacks the towels. Assistant
thinks of being the head coach.
Custodian waits at the locker room.


I thought this was the poem that best showed the collection as a whole because it was able to show the actions of some many different people. You can feel the emotion of the whole gym and can imagine what the coach is thinking. It enables us to see what everyone thought of the losing seasons- the coach trying to put it behind him, the fans disappointed, the assistant ready to take the bigger role, and the others preparing for the end like usual. There isn't any happiness in this season and the feeling of the gym created by this poem exemplifies that.


Ridl's style is truthful about what everyone really thinks about the games. He is able to capture the essence of every single feeling that people feel when there is a losing season. I think that this raw honesty is cool because it enables the author to engage better with his audience and connect with them more. I definitely want to be able to do that with my style of writing and I think that I want to incorporate the multiple perspectives, like he does, as well; I think that this helps create the whole picture rather than having only one view of the things.