The Freedom From Religion Foundation has made certain that a local church will not be able to continue imposing itself on student-athletes in the Sanford, Fla., Seminole County Public Schools system.

FFRF learned of multiple instances of Action Church representatives being granted access to public school students and facilities for religious activities, specifically the Lake Howell High School football team and the Winter Springs High School women’s lacrosse team. FFRF was also told that the head coach of Lake Howell was unconstitutionally leading student-athletes in prayer and participating in religious activities, with students being involved in official school-sponsored religious events. Posts on the Action Church’s official Facebook page, Action Church Pastor Eddie Rivera’s Facebook page and the official Lake Howell Silverhawks Football page showed unconstitutional entanglement between Action Church and Lake Howell High School’s athletics program.

Action Church is an evangelical Protestant ministry whose mission is “to reach people where they are and connect them to everything God has for their life.” The Action Church Facebook page had a history of posting about its involvement in district sports, such as a post on Aug. 29 showing Pastor Rivera with the Lake Howell High School Football Team in locker rooms following a game, and a post from Aug. 19 showing Action Church hosting a meal for the football team in the school’s cafeteria with the coach’s participation, reading, “Thank you Lake Howell High School for the continued partnership. Pastor Eddie Rivera prayed over the team as the season began. Go Silver Hawks!” This reflected a pattern of posts by Action Church from May 2023, August 2024 and May 2025 showing a similar meal being held in the school for the football team, with the same coach present.

FFRF was determined to keep students safe from coercive participation in religious rituals at a public school.

“The district should seek to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all student-athletes, not just those who subscribe to a preferred sect of Christianity,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the district.

It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for the district to offer religious leaders unique access to student-athletes in order to indoctrinate them and lead them in prayer, FFRF emphasized. The district cannot allow its athletic programs to be used as recruiting grounds for churches. Public schools may not show favoritism toward nor coerce belief or participate in religion by allowing a church to preach to and convert student-athletes. The district displayed clear favoritism toward religion over nonreligion and Christianity above all other faiths when it specifically invited representatives of Action Church to host events in Winter Springs High School and Lake Howell High School and to pray at students and staff members. FFRF additionally pointed out that the entanglement of churches and coach-led prayer in the district’s athletics program needlessly marginalized students and families who are non-Christian. Twenty-seven percent of adult Floridians have no religious affiliation and the trends show that the youngest Americans are less likely to be religiously affiliated than older Americans, with 43 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds having no religious affiliation.

FFRF’s letter, thankfully, saw the district take corrective action.

The staff counsel for the district emailed FFRF confirming that principals of both Lake Howell and Winter Springs have been informed about the constitutional concerns that arose due to the Action Church social media posts. In turn, both principals addressed the matter with Action Church and their coaches, with the counsel confirming that the Lake Howell coach had been retrained on engagement with religious groups.

FFRF is pleased to see the district take such initiatives.

“Coaches may not coerce their athletes into praying to play in district sports,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “This was a blatant violation of the Constitution and a strong case for why infusing religion into school sports is always a losing practice. We are happy to see our work to protect students’ rights continue to be successful.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 42,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including more than 2,000 members and a chapter in Florida. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

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