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Style question: coach or Coach

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by aztarheel, Jul 17, 2007.

  1. aztarheel

    aztarheel New Member

    Forgive me if this has been posted somewhere before but which is correct style:

    "blah blah blah," Podunk coach John Smith said.

    OR "blah blah blah," Podunk Coach John Smith said.

    We can't agree on it in our shop ... thanks ...
     
  2. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    definitely lower case.

    geez, it ain't the freakin' president..... :eek: :eek: :eek:

    nothing upper-case worthy about it. :eek: 8) ::)
     
  3. In Cold Blood

    In Cold Blood Member

    yeah, go lower case.
     
  4. MilanWall

    MilanWall Member

    According to AP Style Book, it's "coach" if preceded by a qualifying term like "Podunk coach John Smith." If there's no qualifying term, you capitalize it like "Coach John Smith said."
     
  5. sportschick

    sportschick Active Member

    AP style is generally lowercase, but I worked at one where it was uppercased in all instances. Just depends on your paper's style.
     
  6. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    eff AP style. it's just wrong. as wrong as any reporter addressing a coach in a presser as "Coach..." he/she ain't your coach. he/she has a name. use it.
     
  7. Mighty_Wingman

    Mighty_Wingman Active Member

    How 'bout in quotes? When a player says "I spent all summer working on my pass-rush moves with Coach Williams," is that capitalized?
     
  8. sportshack06

    sportshack06 Member

    its coach with a 'c'

    You could be like the Daily Podunk Times here in this area. The sports EDITOR there will quote a coach like this:

    "We just couldnt play worth a shit tonight. I saw more energy out of the two dogs fucking that I saw on my way to school today," said Coach Smith. "We just have to have more energy, or we'll get the hell beat out of us every week," Coach Smith said.
     
  9. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    TV geekette here uses that term for one person around here so much that it might as well be Nick Saban's first name -- no one else, just Saban...
     
  10. ChmDogg

    ChmDogg Member

    I find that pretty ridiculous, Shockey. I think most coaches are actually pretty comfortable being addressed as "Coach".

    Do people who don't live in the US not address President Bush as "President Bush"? I mean, he's not their president.
     
  11. Boomer7

    Boomer7 Active Member

    The way I interpret AP style is that the above instance is the only one in which you should capitalize "coach" -- when it's clearly used as a title (like Chief, Sgt., King) rather than a job description. That's why you never should capitalize "general manager," because no one has ever said, "Negotiations with General Manager Cashman are going well."
     
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