Wash. High School Coach Continues Post-Football Game Prayer Despite Orders to Stop

A high school football coach in Washington state has continued to say a post-game prayer with his student athletes despite objections from the school district.

Joe Kennedy, the assistant football coach at Bremerton High School, recently took the field following a game against the Centralia Tigers to pray to God, thanking him for a safe and successful game.

Despite demands from the Bremerton School District to not pray at football games, arguing that it was a violation of federal law for public school and their endorsement of a religion, Kennedy took the field anyway and was reportedly accompanied by several supporters during his prayer.

"I've got my eyes closed and I feel all these people around me. I'm like, God, I hope those aren't kids," Kennedy told the KIRO media outlet in a recent interview. "I'm sitting there and I'm going, 'God, thank you for this opportunity. And [...] if this is the last time I step on the field with these guys [...]"

As The Christian Post reports, Kennedy says that he chooses to continue with the prayer because he "kind of made an agreement with my personal faith and with God that this was something that I was going to do, and I was going to give him the glory after every single game, and do it on the 50 [yard line]."

"I'm kind of a guy of my word, and I'm just going to go through with what I've always done," the coach added. "I really don't believe I'll be fired for what I'm going to do. You know, I have a higher power that I answer to."