Of course, all of this is in the spirit of "team building" and has absolutely nothing to do with the separation of church and state. You see, participation isn't mandatory, and there will be "no retaliation" against players who might not want to participate because, say, they belong to a different faith or -- God forbid -- have no faith in the supernatural at all!
Yeah right, if anybody -- including the several coaches interviewed for the article -- really believes that simply saying "ok, Bob, you don't have to come, if you "really" don't feel like praising Jesus with your teammates" makes thins an acceptable practice in public schools, I'd like to tell these people about a piece of real estate I own in Rome and I'd like to sell -- it's called the Colosseum.
The relationship between a teacher, especially a coach, and his students is a special one, and it entails a significant degree of asymmetry, which makes it uncomfortable to say the least for any student -- even college-level -- to simply say no. Add to this the force of peer pressure, and football teams around the country are turning into yet another Christian evangelical field.
So, what, one might argue, don't Christians have the right to evangelize? Yes, that's why they can print what they want, own churches (tax free) all over the country, control tv and radio stations, and influence the political process of the most powerful nation in the world. Don't tell him that barring them from breaking the church-state separation wall is an instance of discrimination or persecution. Grow up! And while you're at it, just imagine the outcry if I were to walk into my undergraduate class and begin by having people reciting the Humanist Manifesto - no pressure though!
