It doesn’t matter if you’re incorporating your theme into your yearbook’s sports headlines, playing it straight, or going for gut-busting laughter: A clever turn of phrase will elevate your story and capture a reader’s attention.
We’re going to share 28 ideas with you for some winter sports: basketball, wrestling, swimming, and soccer (whether these are winter sports in your area, of course, depends on which part of the country you’re in). Before we do, though, a quick word about clever headlines: They don’t need to be funny.
Sure, a clever headline can surely feature a pun or an amusing turn of phrase, but it can also be a headline that expertly includes a unifying feature across the entire section or a word relates to your yearbook’s larger theme.
In this case, though, we’ve focused on finding ways to incorporate the wide glossary of sports terms into our headlines. Here are some of our favorites for basketball, wrestling, swimming, and soccer.
Basketball
Image Source: the42.ie
It might take a second to get it, but Canadian newspaper The Province aptly titled a story on whether British Columbia could handle a second NBA franchise with just four letters. The headline played off the country’s famous utterance “Eh,” which, of course, has the same sound as the letter “A.” Though this example is a little dated (the Grizzlies moved from Vancouver, British Columbia to Memphis in 2001), it’s a great example of taking a term or cultural tic specific to your school and applying the unique sound of it to a headline. .
Here are some other examples to get you started:
- “Order on the Court”
- “Hoops, They Did It Again”
- “Actions Speak Louder Than Coaches”
- “Balling!”
- “Uptown Dunk”
- “Hoop Dreams”
- “Dunk And Go Nuts”
Soccer
Image Source: Twitter User JosepRomero3
When Germany defeated Brazil 7-1 in the 2014 World Cup, Britain’s Metro newspaper responded with this clever header, which puts a spin on the popular German phrase “das boot.” The play here is the boot/booted parallel. In soccer, especially Europe, cleats are known as “boots” while “booted” is a nice, strong verb alternative to “eliminated.”
This headline, like the one above, plays off cultural vocabulary, but this is a better example of playing off the double meaning of a word:
- “Get Your Kicks”
- “Our Goal? Stopping Yours”
- “Let The Feet Do The Talking”
- “Best in the Field”
- “Here’s the Kicker”
- “Viva Futbol!”
- “Headers & Footers”
Wrestling
Image Source: Tesoro High School
This yearbook page shows several headlines that work well for a wrestling spread. A number of bold headlines make a statement while still bringing the main headline “Pin and Win: Every Move Matters” to the reader’s immediate focus. The other titles maximize rhymes and take advantage of sports lingo: “Hustle and Tustle” and “Pin and Win” both rhyme and make references to wrestling jargon.
Here are some other fun slogans you can use for your school’s wrestling spread:
- “No Pain. No Gain”
- “Ready to Rumble”
- “Rock Solid”
- “Pin It to Win It”
- “Out on Top”
- “Toughest Six Minutes There Is”
- “Grapple Up”
Swimming
Image Source: kabellaire
In this yearbook layout, “Staying Afloat Through Changing Times” is an engaging headline that both cleverly references swimming and makes the reader curious to know what changes have happened. The “Press Play” headline complements the film roll aesthetic of the photos next to it.
For more swimming spread-related slogans, check out some of our headline ideas:
- “Instant Athlete: Just Add Water”
- “[Your Team Name] Made Waves”
- “Sink Or Swim”
- “Life In The Fast Lane”
- “[Your Team Name] Made A Splash”
- “Dive Deeper”
- “Testing The Waters”
If you want to get your readers paying more attention to your main story, dig into your theme, your school’s culture, and sports terms to find ways to add a dose of clever to your winter sports spreads. It’ll help you steal a smile from your reader or unify your theme across multiple pages. In short, it’s worth the creative effort.
