Prep Coach Fired for Praying With Team : Basketball Assistant Had Previously Been Warned, Suspended

A high school coach who was fired for praying with his undefeated girls basketball team said Tuesday the practice helped unify the team to win games.

But Principal Robert Bone of John F. Kennedy High School said however helpful prayer might be, he had to fire the part-time coach Jan. 14 because it has no legal place on a public school basketball court.

He said Jim Arnold, a 24-year-old ordained Southern Baptist minister, persisted in praying with his junior varsity girls team despite being told it is against the law.

Bone recalled that Arnold once took a practice break and, “instead of having a team meeting, he wanted them to pray that the girls not be tempted by drugs or sex or any kind of immorality.

“He was told he could not do these kinds of things as a school employee on school property, but he went ahead. It’s clearly illegal. I said to him, ‘Jim, you realize there are kids on your team who are Buddhists.’ ”

Arnold said none of the girls, including the four Buddhists, ever complained to him about brief prayers at practice, before games or at halftime. Arnold said he was the only one who prayed audibly.

“It seemed to me like it really brought us together,” he told United Press International. “I would ask the Lord to keep us safe, protect us from injury, help us be thankful, and to do our best.

“The girls never said they disagreed. In one game, when we weren’t doing so well and I was philosophizing about it, one girl said, ‘We didn’t pray before the game.’ So we had prayer about it. She’s not a Christian.”

The principal said none of the girls complained to him about Arnold but he learned of the prayer sessions through the varsity coach. Bone said he suspended Arnold Jan. 11 then reinstated him under a no-prayer agreement. He said he fired Arnold the next day because he had changed his mind.