Your story on Bremerton Coach Kennedy’s voluntary prayer ritual after the Centralia game was very moving, and I cannot see how this coach, or anyone else, can continue to be persecuted by those in position of authority who don’t have the backbone to support his constitutional and God-given rights!

Having been involved in youth football since 2004 and watching four games every Saturday, I have seen coaches on both sides gather their players either before or after their games asking for spiritual guidance and safety of their kids before a game and for thanks afterwards.

I have seen this when both coaches are from public school programs, which was my case and in some cases, when our opponents were from faith-based schools … and in many cases, just like Centralia’s players and coaching staff joined Coach Kennedy, we were joined by our opponents.

The Supreme Court decision stated that “students cannot lead prayers over the public-address system” and there was no ruling on any other method of prayer.

So either Principal Gleysteen and Superintendent Lewell should seek federal prosecution of Coach Kennedy for exercising HIS First Amendment rights, or they should leave him alone and see whether this support will gain or wane and deal with it as long as he is not honoring our Creator on behalf of the school or district.

Your school motto is “Respect, Responsibility and Safety is the Knights’ Way,” and Coach Kennedy honors all three aspects.

School and district administrators should honor the first aspect with regards to Coach Kennedy.

Ken Delfino,
Keystone, South Dakota.