ap style sports In general other sports words, phrases boys and girls Use boys and girls to In general football designate teams. Do not use an apostrophe; berth preseason carrier lineman the team does not belong to the boys or to co-captain runner-up blitz (n., v.) the girls, but to the school. In most cases, defender semifinal end line boys or girls is used as part of a noun phrase: sports writer out of bounds (adv.) The varsity girls soccer team placed third in halftime teammate out-of-bounds (adj.) district. The boys cross country team finished play off (v.) fair catch timeout pitchout (n.) first at regionals. playoff (n., adj.) fourth-and-1 place kick coach Do not capitalize. “We just didn’t baseball fullback place-kicker play to the best of our ability,” varsity girls ballpark outfielder goal line coach Angie Hermesmeyer said. running back ballplayer passed ball goal-line stand split end baseline pinch hit (v.) halfback cross country Two words, no hyphen.* tailback bullpen pinch hitter (n.) handoff tight end event titles Capitalize titles of districts field pitchout kick off (v.) and meets, but lowercase shortened titles. center fielder RBI kickoff (adj.) District 26-4A, Big XII Conference, The team designated hitter RBIs left guard advanced to state. The varsity football team doubleheader rundown linebacker won the district championship. double play sacrifice fair ball sacrifice fly golf freshman vs. freshmen When referring to the fairway fastball sacrifice hit birdie, birdies team, it should be singular. If you are taking shortstop green fee about several players, it should be freshmen. first baseman bogey, bogeys shut out (v.) -in-one The freshman football team were undefeated. ball line bogeyed tee (n.) Six varsity players are freshmen. foul tip shutout (n., adj.) caddie tee off (v.) ground-rule double slugger eagle, eagled halftime Not half time or half-time home plate squeeze play home run strike soccer offside junior varsity Capitalize and do not use left-hander strike zone forward periods when abbreviated. Always abbreviate penalty box line drive triple play goalie when used as a modifier. Otherwise, spell it sideline line up (v.) walk-off goalkeeper out. JV baseball, the junior . midfielder striker lineup (n.) wild pitch midcourt, midfield Not mid-court, mid-field basketball tennis numerals Spell out one through nine, use advantage points figures for 10 and above. Note the exceptions baseline half-court pass deuce when used as a compound adjective. 8- racket downcourt hook shot double-fault lead, first quarter, second-quarter lead, first- serve foul line love round loss, third place, 12th place, No. 2 match set foul show player, 7-yard gain. match point tiebreaker man-to-man statistics Use figures and hyphens.60-yard free-throw line dash, 23-foot jump, 6-foot-5 center, 35-yard frontcourt midcourt . full-court press zone playoff (n.) play off (v.) postseason, preseason No hyphen listing scores writing scores in a story Put the winning score first, regardless if Still put the winning score first. pounds For wrestling stories, do not spell out your team won or not. Adding a W or L pounds: Michael Page, 115-lbs division will indicate if it was a win or a loss. It’s In a 55-54 loss to Hendrickson... redundant to write 20-21 L. The Cougars bounced back with a 66-61 semifinal Not semi-final win over Vista Ridge... Hendrickson 55-54 L teams Do not capitalize team designations. Vista Ridge 66-61 W The team level goes before the gender. The *cross country – The 2017 AP Stylebook hyphenates cross-country, but notes this is in contrast to the practices of varsity boys basketball team, the freshman U.S. and international governing bodies for the sport. Most high school state sports organizations and sports writers football team. do not hyphenate.

Source: Associated Press Stylebook, 2017. Created by Kel Lemons, Connally HS 2008, updated 2017