Worship before competition routine for some teams

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God in the game

Worship before competition routine for some teams

By Diamond Leung, Press-Enterprise, January 19, 2006

Moments before the opening whistle, Karissa Aguirre and the rest of the Canyon Springs High School girls soccer team bow their heads, close their eyes and pray to "Father."

"We're all one when we're saying it," said Aguirre, a senior defender at the Moreno Valley school.

Coach Marie Dillon turns her back to gather balls during the recitation not out of disrespect, but because she follows federal law, which allows prayer in public schools only if it's student-initiated and student-led.

"It's something I've never really talked about with them, but I could tell it was something important," Dillon said.

Despite the ongoing and often contentious battle to keep religion out of public-school classrooms -- to maintain the separation of church and state -- prayer remains a common practice on athletic fields and in gymnasiums across the Inland area.

"Obviously if individuals want to do it on their own, I have no problem with that," said Dave Kong, California director of American Atheists. "If you're praying by the goalposts it's a bit grandstanding, but it's not illegal or unconstitutional. It's just in bad taste."

As long as the school isn't promoting prayer or any other religious activity before a game, and the athletes' participation is voluntary, it falls within the scope of the law -- for now.

The last time the U.S. Supreme Court took up the issue of schools and prayer, sports was at the center of the case.

The high court ruled in 2000 that a Texas public high school could not allow pregame prayers over loudspeakers before football games. Even when led by students, the majority of the court saw such prayers as being school-sponsored.

That case, Chapman University School of Law professor John C. Eastman believes, could be the start of a fight over school prayer extending to athletics if activists press judges further.

"It's part of the overall campaign ... to remove any reference to religion or God from anything public," he said. "Now where it's turning to is private prayer and the battlefront is on the sport field and graduation ceremony."

Though the issue doesn't appear to have made it through the courts in the Inland area since the Supreme Court ruling, a legal challenge is pending in New Jersey.

East Brunswick High football coach Marcus Borden resigned last October after the school district ordered him to stop participating in his team's pregame prayer. He later returned to his coaching job of 23 years and sued the district.

"I just want to recognize that my team is saying grace and that I'm bowing my head out of respect to my team," he said by phone on Wednesday.

Rules to Worship

For Inland-area coaches and school administrators, it means making sure they don't cross the line to proselytizing.

At Canyon Springs in 2001, assistant athletic director Dave Torbert was called into the principal's office because someone had complained that he gave an invocation at the football team's annual banquet. Now, invocations are no longer given at the banquets.

"It's crazy how far we've gone when politics start coming in with anything that has to do with God," said Luis Lopez, whose daughter Katrina plays for -- and prays with -- Riverside's John W. North High soccer team. "What are they going to do -- start erasing from the bills 'In God We Trust?' "

Within the Rialto Unified School District in San Bernardino County, coaches are given time for a moment of reflection before or after games and are encouraged to give motivational speeches, according to district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri. But, she said, "Religion is and should remain absent from the school arena.

"As long as a coach is not pushing or advocating prayer, that's OK," she said. "If a student wants to quietly close their eyes and pray to their God, that's OK."

The issue comes up frequently at schools in the Inland area. At a recent North girls soccer game, coach Scott Zyber said another coach suggested that he not even stand in the area of his players when they say pregame prayers.

At Canyon Springs, when the entire girls basketball team prays in a circle before games, coach Gail Hale prays by herself on the opposite end of the court.

"Our jobs as coaches is not to push the issue," Hale said. "If the kids choose to do it, of course we're going to support it. If a kid was ever uncomfortable, there's no way anyone would ever be forced to do it."

Freedom From Religion

Coaches and players must be sensitive to team members who do not want to pray, said Charles Haynes, senior scholar for religious freedom at the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va. Haynes was the lead writer of three guides about religious liberty in public schools that President Clinton distributed nationwide.

"Peer pressure in high school is a big deal," Haynes said by phone. "A lot of kids will go along with the prayer because it's always been done or they know the coach likes it. It will be the rare student who says they don't want to participate."

Joe Conn, spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he found nothing wrong with athletes praying as long as coaches aren't involved.

However, he did express concern about outside groups facilitating the start-up of student-led religious clubs at public schools.

Among them is the nonprofit Fellowship of Christian Athletes, founded in 1954, which claims active clubs on 20 local campuses from Riverside to Palm Springs. Erik Carlson, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes' Riverside and San Bernardino counties director, says the organization is not overstepping any bounds and is simply working to spread its message.

The Federal Equal Access Act of 1984 allows student-organized religious clubs in public secondary schools. Fellowship of Christian Athletes established itself in the Inland area three years ago with offices in Indio and Redlands, and it hopes to open another in Temecula.

The clubs generally meet on campus during lunch or after practice. Their agenda depends on the local leadership, Carlson said, but could include anything from Bible study to discussions on teen matters and current events.

An Outlet for Faith

At King High in Riverside, more than 100 student athletes belong to the campus Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which meets in a classroom before school.

"Christians are encouraged to pray without ceasing," Carlson said. "The perfect place is in the athletic realm. It allows students to do the best they possibly can in the test they're given."

On a recent day at the Moreno Valley high school, it wasn't only the Cougar soccer team that was praying. The opposing team, North High, said a similar prayer on the other sideline. That evening, the Canyon Springs girls basketball team took time to ask for a good game.

"It says in Scripture that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," said Canyon Springs basketball player Ashley Lindsay, "so if we pray before our game and put it all in God's hands, everything should go the way it's supposed to."

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