FFRF sacks prayer at Alabama high school’s football games (June 4, 2012)

Football coaches at Hoover High School (Hoover, Ala.) will no longer engage in pre-game locker room prayers, thanks to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

FFRF Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert wrote to Hoover City Schools Superintendent Andy Craig on Jan. 6 to alert the school district that such prayers are unconstitutional. “By leading and participating in prayers, the coaches are sending a message of exclusion to nontheists on the football team and to those believers whose religion is not being professed during these locker room prayers,” Markert added.

FFRF received confirmation from the school district’s attorney on June 4 that coaches would not lead prayer or arrange for other adults to pray before football games in the future.