"High School" on first reference

I have more of a problem with newspapers still using the archaic "preps" when referring to high school sports, whether it's in a set head, sig, etc. Unless the word prep is part of the school name (Tampa Berkley Prep, for example), there is no one who calls them "prep" schools any more. The only reason it is still in use is that the desk loves that it fits in a one-column space.

 

Is it really archaic? I thought it was in pretty common use.

 

That was always our style, and I find it hard to adjust when writing for other papers.

You needed the proper name of the school, the sport and the day in the first two or three paragraphs.

Another rule we followed was that in headlines, it was always school-school or nickname-nickname.

Centaurs outlast Little Noises

or

Woodstock outlasts Hale-Ray (which we also called "Hale-hyphen-Ray."

Never Woodstock holds off Little Noises or Centaurs hold off Hale-Ray.

Of course, we had a sports editor who liked to partially quoted Thomas Hobbes and say "Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

And, yes, absolutely, you write a sports story differently if it's going A-1. Joe Bagadonuts, who doesn't follow sports, is gonna need context. So is his wife, "Marge."