School Football Resumes After Prayer Ban

S A N T A  F E, Texas, Sept. 2 -- Football returned to Santa Fe High School near Houston, Texas, but the tradition of pre-game prayer did not.

Two months after the U.S. Supreme Court banned high schools from amplifying school-sanctioned pre-game prayer, a court-defying effort by protesters to recite “The Lord’s Prayer” fell short of expected numbers Friday night.

An estimated 200 of the crowd of 4,500 broke into prayer at Santa Fe High School, the school that spawned the June 19 decision from the high court.

Thousands of people had expected to recite the prayer at the home opener between Santa Fe and neighboring rival Hitchcock as part of an organized No Pray No Play movement.

“It would have been an awesome experience to be in the stands and to be able to hear you know that many people saying ‘The Lord’s Prayer,’” said Becky Frye, mother of a Santa Fe player. “And I think it’s a shame that it didn’t get to happen.”

Prayer Falls Short of Prediction

The tool that shut down the effort, prayer fans said, was theschool-owned public address system the Supreme Court said could notbe used to broadcast a prayer.

When the appointed moment to pray arrived, the Santa Fe faithfulwere slapped a double insult: the announcer broke right into hisintroduction of the visiting team.

“It was obvious that the announcer jumped right in after theanthem, and then it was too late to do anything,” said Frye. “If people could have appointed a leader for every section, we could have overcome the speaker.”

Poor planning was also a problem, others said.

“People didn’t get it together,” said Sheila Briscoe, anotherSanta Fe team booster.

Nonetheless, the group who planned the synchronized pre-gameprayer declared the event a success.

“We weren’t trying to get everybody on the same line,” said No Pray No Play spokesman David Newsome. “We didn’t come here and say we were going to orchestrate this thing one-two-three like they’re doing out there on the field with the band.”