State coaches react to decision regarding coach praying on field
Hand boys hockey coach Brian Gonsalves hadn’t really delved into the Supreme Court case, decided this week, about a football coach fired in 2015 for praying on the field. But he caught himself up on Kennedy v. Bremerton and returned the call.
“Most public schools don’t do it, but it made me think about it,” Gonsalves said. “It’s not just a prayer for yourself, but (to be) thankful, grateful to play this game, after what we went through ... and for everyone to safely to finish the game.”
The Court ruled on Monday in favor of Joseph Kennedy, who was put on leave from and eventually not rehired for his football coaching job in Bremerton, Washington, a ferry ride across Puget Sound from Seattle, after the school district told him to stop leading prayers on the field and in the locker room.
The case hinged on different parts of the First Amendment. Catholic school teams, obviously, answer to a different power than public schools and don’t have to worry so much about the Establishment Clause.
Bridgeport Central football coach Tom Broschardt grew up in Catholic schools, coached at now-defunct Trinity Catholic, then came to the Hilltoppers in 2021. He said one of the captains asked whether they were going to pray before a game. And so they do.
“Coming from a Catholic school and also playing in a Catholic high school, at a Catholic college where we went to Mass before games, I give players the option,” Broschardt said. “At Trinity, we did Mass before the game and prayed before the game.
“I don’t want to step on anybody’s rights or beliefs. ... I ask, if anybody has an issue, let me know.”
It can be a fraught issue, particularly in today’s divided 280-characters-of-rage United States. One football coach politely said “We don’t do it, so, that’s really all I can say,” and he wasn’t kidding. A handful
of others didn’t return messages seeking their thoughts.
CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini and associate executive director Gregg Simon were at the National Federation of State High School Associations’ summer meeting and said they were unavailable to comment.
The court ruled 6-3 that Kennedy’s prayer on the field did not represent a government entity establishing a religion, which would violate the First Amendment.
“Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a brief, quiet, personal religious
observance doubly protected by the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote.
Both Gorsuch’s opinion and Samuel Alito’s concurring opinion said Kennedy’s prayer came during a brief downtime in his coaching duties. Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent said Kennedy’s prayers were more demonstrative than described and came while he was on duty.
“The Constitution does not authorize, let alone require, public schools to embrace this conduct,” Sotomayor wrote.
Longtime hockey coach Larry Vieira now coaches at a Catholic school; he led Notre Dame-West Haven to the 2022 Division I championship. At his last stop, he presided over a co-op between
a public school and a Catholic school, New Fairfield and Immaculate.
“New Fairfield was the host school. It was kind of split right in the middle, Immaculate and New Fairfield,” Vieira said. “We did do a prayer before the game, again, because it was Immaculate. All the kids did participate. There was never an issue.
“I felt a team prayer was a way to unify a team,” he added, “a common bond we had. At New Fairfield/ Immaculate, it was a nonissue.”
He said he’s adamant about respecting others’ faiths; he said the Green Knights had a player this year who is Jewish and didn’t take part in the team’s prayer.
“You should be able to
pray,” Vieira said, “and if (you don’t want to), you don’t have to participate.”
At another Catholic school not far away, St. Joseph boys lacrosse coach Brendan Talbot said they usually don’t pray as a team They sometimes pray in small groups, Talbot said.
“Pregame, postgame, we leave it up to the kids. Some kids are religious and want to do it,” Talbot said. “Though we’re a Catholic school, I feel it’s everybody’s choice.
“Maybe (the decision) opens the door to ‘Those who want to participate, we’re going to do this pregame or postgame,’ ” he added. “I saw it in the football world, especially postgame, sometimes, kids came together.”
Gonsalves said he knows
of a referee who prays during the national anthem for the safety of everyone involved.
Talbot said his team prayed as a group, at a player’s suggestion, at its first practice after Fairfield Prep’s Jimmy McGrath died in May. (A St. Joseph student, not a lacrosse player, has been charged with McGrath’s murder.)
“As long as the kids aren’t participating because they feel like they were coerced or feel they have to do it,” Talbot said. “That’s part of the reason we don’t do it . ... I don’t want you to think (or) to feel you have to do it. I want you to want to do it.”
Gorsuch’s opinion said Kennedy began by praying on his own and that when players asked whether they could join him, he told them, “This is a free country. You can do what you want.” That expanded to including short speeches with religious themes after the prayer. The dissent said players may have felt coerced to join in.
The Court’s decision says Kennedy had also led prayers in the locker room before games, which it describes as a tradition that preceded the coach. He stopped that when the school district told him to, but he continued to pray at midfield after games, and opposing players and members of the public joined him. A few weeks later, the district placed him on leave, then did not bring him back the next year.