St. Johns coach under fire for team prayers

A group threatens to sue if the Bartram Trail coach doesn't separate his religious beliefs from his work.

In the seven years he's been the football coach at Bartram Trail High School, Darrell Sutherland has always led a postgame prayer, thanking God for the players, for their health, for the injuries they didn't get.

He prays the young men will make wise decisions over the weekend, then he says "amen" and sends them on their way.

His prayer isn't particularly different from those said at St. Augustine High, Nease and Pedro Menendez games. But unlike his counterparts in St. Johns County, Sutherland has been facing criticism in recent weeks from a group threatening to sue if he doesn't separate his religious beliefs from his work. The other schools have not been threatened.

Sutherland apparently is being targeted because the mother of a student who couldn't make the team and other community members have singled him out in complaints to the Florida chapter of American Atheists.

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