A high school football coach from Pennsylvania has been forced to stop his longstanding practice of leading prayers with his teams before sporting events after he became the subject of a complaint from an atheist group.
According to a report from Christian News, Dunmore Superintendent John Marichak said he already instructed high school head coach Jack Henzes to no longer pray before games, after receiving a letter from Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) describing the practice as unconstitutional.
He added that other public school employees in the predominantly Roman Catholic area have also been advised to refrain from this practice.
"We directed Coach Henzes to be sure that he should not partake in any such behavior," Marichak said in a response letter to FFRF late last month. "We also covered this with all of our personnel to be consistent and exhaustive in the upholding of the law."
In its letter, the atheist group asserted that Henzes cannot lead prayers before games, saying it violates the constitutional provision preventing public employees from endorsing a particular faith.
"When a public school employee acting in an official capacity organizes, leads or participates in team prayer, he effectively endorses religion on the district's behalf," the FFRF letter read.
Henzes, however, said he has no intention of doing this, and just wants to ask for God's help in keeping the athletes he coaches safe throughout the games.
"We pray to the good Lord hoping none of our players, or the other players, are hurt because we know how hard they work," Henzes told local television station WBRE, as quoted by Christian News.
Some residents were also displeased with what happened to Henzes. A graduate of the Dunmore public school, Sal Marchese, for instance, said the coach only wanted to help in the spiritual growth of his students.
"It's just something you're accustomed to doing every day, and Coach Henzes doesn't just teach football. He teaches life lessons, and this is a life lesson I'm sure he'll teach the Bucks," he said.
