Style question - capitalizing coach

I know the New York Times capitalizes coach as in Coach Isaiah Thomas. What's the AP style rule, since I think it's a job description than an actual title?

 

Coach: Lowercase in all uses, as a job description, not a formal title.

Only capitalize "coach" at the beginning of a sentence.

 

We do one exception, which you guys might just not have mentioned. When used as a proper name, we up it.

"I told Coach Jones we could get into the end zone," Smith said.

 

That may be your paper's style, but it's wrong according to AP ...

 

I've always done lowercase except to start a sentence.

 

I know it looks odd, but I'm a stickler for the AP style.

 

I'm with SFX. In a case like this, "Coach" is a name (or a nickname).

 

"coach" is like "dad" -- lowercase except when you are using it as a proper noun.

I told my dad that I don't like coach Jones.

"I love Coach just like a father," he said.

 

If it's "my dad," that's correct. Same with "I told my coach."

But here, it's "I told Dad that I don't like Coach Jones."

AP is wrong on this, at least as far as I'm concerned and, well, here, that's the final word.

 

It is tricky when someone says "coach Jones." Are they using it as a title or as part of the name?

If they just call the person "Coach" I capitalize it.

 

It's all up to a paper's particular style. I think we had editors who worked at the Trib once upon a time, because our style pretty closely emulates theirs. We capitalize Coach, we use three-pointers instead of 3-pointers, etc.

 

We capitalize it, but I wish we didn't.

As a substitution for a name, I'd capitalize it.