prayer

The Tampa school went to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year after a federal judge backed a decision by the FHSAA to prevent a prayer over the loudspeaker.

A Supreme Court decision prompted speculation that prayer would become a bigger part of the game-day fabric, though that hasn’t seemed to be the case. Outside Detroit, coaches have found ways for their diverse rosters to pray if they wish.

“Defendants intended to promote prayer,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in a court brief. “That is a religious purpose and ‘is dispositive’ of its unconstitutionality.”

It stems from the FHSAA's decision to Cambridge Christian School of Tampa from offering a prayer before a football championship game at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium.

A federal judge has sided with the Florida High School Athletic Association in a dispute about whether a Christian school should have been allowed to…