High school football coach draws criticism over post-game prayer

By Tiffany Pakkala

In the seven years he's been the football coach at Bartram Trail High School, Darrell Sutherland has always led a post-game prayer.

As his team, coaching staff, cheerleaders, parents and fans gather around him on the field, the coach thanks God for the players, for their health, for the injuries they didn't get. He prays the young men will make wise decisions over the weekend, then he says, "Amen," and sends them on their way.

"I really want to share in the joy of the moment and pray with them before the weekend starts," the coach explained.


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His prayer isn't particularly different from those said at St. Augustine High, Nease and Pedro Menendez games. After all, for St. Johns County's public high school football coaches, prayer is as much a football tradition as cheering after touchdowns.

But, unlike his counterparts, Sutherland has been facing serious criticism in recent weeks from a group threatening to sue if he doesn't separate his religious beliefs from his work.

"Obviously what he's doing is wrong," said Greg McDowell, the Florida director of American Atheists. "When you organize prayer like that, you're crossing the line. Those not involved are easily distinguished from the group and could be ostracized."

McDowell doesn't plan to press charges unless he exhausts every other avenue he can use to stop the team prayers. He hasn't heard from anyone currently on Sutherland's team, but he began calling school officials after community members and a former player's mother filed complaints with his office.

Pat Jensen, a plaintiff whose son once tried out for the team, but didn't make it, said she's sure the coach has good intentions, but she said he's not thinking about "what's lawful."

"This is why we have separation of church and state, so the Muslim and Jewish and Hindu kids don't feel left out when the Christians are doing their God thing," she said.

She worries the school district will eventually face a lawsuit it won't be able to win.

Another plaintiff, the mother of an elementary schooler, wonders how the district would react if the prayers weren't Christian.

"What if there was a rabbi offering a prayer at a football game? What if there was a Buddhist prayer or a Hindu prayer or a Wicca prayer?" asked Carla Haney, who said her family has a mix of religious beliefs.

She said she worries that her own son will be "retaliated against" if he makes the team someday because he is not a Christian.

A third plaintiff declined a newspaper interview, but told McDowell the coach gives preferential treatment to students who buy into his beliefs, an accusation Sutherland fiercely denies.

"What's most upsetting to me is that they think I would discriminate based on someone having a different faith than me," the coach said. "There's nothing further from the truth, when our mission statement is to love these guys like they're our own sons."

Faith not forced

Bartram Trail Offensive Coordinator Carl Parker said Coach Sutherland is as fair as he can be, including every one of his senior players in his highlight tapes and on the statistical sheets he shares with recruiters.

Parker, whose son Kyle is the team quarterback, suggested complaints about Sutherland's supposed preferential treatment was more a matter of parents looking for someone to blame when their children can't play to the level college recruiters want.

Sutherland said nothing faith-related is forced on his team. The players' prayers after practices and in the locker room before games are student-initiated, he said. And their Friday devotionals, which typically involve a motivational talk and sometimes a speaker's personal testimony of faith, are optional.

Sutherland said he's never seen a player opt out, especially since the talks are often delivered by professional football players from Jacksonville's Jaguar team.

But McDowell thinks it's more likely that peer pressure keeps anyone from skipping a prayer or devotional.

"I know how these kids feel," he said. "Whether they're atheist or Hindu or Jewish, they're not going to stand up. They don't want to be seen as trouble-makers. But it actually bothers them to the core."

After McDowell complained to district administrators, Sutherland said he decided to step back and look at how he runs his team. He began asking parents and players if they felt he was out of line. No one said he was. And no one had complained before about the prayers, the coach said.

"We have players of different faiths, and I have a good relationship with them and their parents. If they had a problem, I feel like I'm pretty approachable," he said.

Criticism upsets players

Several members of the football team said they were upset when their coach's tactics were criticized.

"I don't think anybody feels that he favors any of the kids. He's by far the best coach I've ever had. He's like a father figure," said junior line backer Zach Romani.

Junior wide receiver Colin Parker said the team learns much more than football from the coach it learns lessons about life. And praying together helps the players see each other "in a different light that kind of brings us together."

Senior defensive back Mark Safer said he sees the team's prayers and devotionals as "a bonding experience," but he wouldn't feel awkward speaking up if he had a problem with them.

"I don't think it would be hard at all to tell Coach Sutherland if I didn't feel comfortable. I don't think anyone would have a hard time," he said. "It's just one of the things we do as a team. It would be really, really weird if we didn't pray after practice and before games."

It would be weird for Sutherland, too, who said he couldn't imagine being a coach without his faith.

He said his job would be "shallow" if it was based solely on wins and losses. Instead, he said he and his staff make a point of coaching their players to be "men of character," who put others first and value relationships over possessions.

The "character curriculum," modeled after a program University of Georgia football coach Mark Richt uses, "is not necessarily what society teaches, so some people would consider it faith-based," Sutherland said. "But I don't think encouraging men to grow as individuals academically, socially and in their faith, as well, crosses the line. Especially since we're not asking them to grow in my faith."

Prayer a personal issue

Still, to Ken Hurley, president of the Northeast Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, asking students to grow in their faith ignores that some may not have a religion.

"The coach seems to be saying he doesn't care which faith you have as long as you have a faith. That leaves out the 40 million Americans who claim to be non-religious," Hurley said.

He argued that team prayers could divide the team more than they unite it, since some players might not feel comfortable participating.

"If you want the best football team, you stick to teaching football," he said. "Prayer is a personal matter, not something that should be relegated by an agent of a public school system."

But Coach Sutherland said his mission isn't winning and losing: it's impacting young men far beyond the playing field.

He said the life lessons he and his staff have taught the boys shine through all the time. He talked about the players' work to help the Barrow, Alaska, team raise money for a turf; the way the team painstakingly laid out sod for a Jacksonville boys' and girls' home; and one 15-year-old player who chose to sit with a boy who was all alone in the lunchroom, instead of sitting with his friends and teammates.

"This group of guys will have a great impact on the world around them. They're a special group, and a joy to coach," Sutherland said. "I'll measure our success 15 or 20 years down the road when I find out what kind of men they've become."

Meanwhile, McDowell said he worries about the lasting affect the coach will have on those that are afraid to speak up.

While many have asked what the harm is in a little prayer, McDowell said, "What's the harm in not having a prayer? I'm not out to burn anybody, especially a school. But if I have to, I have to."