Somebody always ends up having to say it. The team takes a knee, everyone looks at the floor, and whoever got picked has about four seconds to come up with something. What usually comes out is a request to win, a request for nobody to get hurt, and an amen.
The winning part is the piece that makes people uncomfortable, because every player in that circle knows the other team is doing the same thing. Praying to win asks God to pick a side in a high school football game.
So here is what to say instead. These are short on purpose. A prayer you can remember in a loud locker room beats a better one you have to read off your phone.
A Prayer to Say Before Kickoff
God, I am ready. You gave me this body and this team and a season I do not get back. Help me play free, hit clean, and keep my head when it stops going my way. Whatever happens in the next three hours, I am still yours. Amen.
Short enough to say with your helmet in your hand. The line that matters is the last one, because it settles the question before the game answers it.
A Prayer When You Are Nervous
Nerves before a game are not a sign that something is wrong with you. The body does the same thing to everybody in that locker room, and the ones who look calm have usually just felt it more times. Research on competition and performance keeps landing in the same place, which is that the feeling itself is neutral and what you decide it means is not.
God, my hands are shaking and I do not love it. Thanks that it means I care. Take the part of this that is fear and leave the part that is ready. Amen.
If you want one verse to sit with on the bus, this is the one:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
With thanksgiving is the part people skip. It is hard to spiral and be grateful in the same breath.
A Football Team Prayer a Captain Can Lead
This one is written to be said out loud, in front of guys who do not all believe the same thing. It names nothing anybody has to agree with to stand there respectfully.
God, thank you for this team and for the chance to play tonight. Keep both sidelines healthy. Help us play hard enough that we can look each other in the eye after, no matter what the scoreboard says. Give us the kind of effort that does not need a result to be worth it. Amen.
Three notes if you are the one saying it:
- Keep it under twenty seconds. Long prayers in a pregame huddle lose the room and everybody opens their eyes.
- Pray for the other team. It costs nothing and it changes the temperature of the whole circle.
- Do not pray at your teammates. A prayer that is really a speech about effort is a speech. Everybody can tell.
A Prayer for Game Day Morning
Friday morning is its own thing. School is impossible, you cannot eat right, and the game is nine hours away.
God, it is a long day and my head is already at the stadium. Help me be useful to somebody before kickoff. Keep me out of my own way until then. Amen.
A Prayer When Someone Goes Down
The field goes quiet, both teams take a knee, and nobody knows what to do with their hands.
God, be with him. Give the trainers steady hands and clear heads. Whatever this turns out to be, do not let him go through it alone. Amen.
Say it for a player in the other jersey too. That is usually the moment a team finds out what it actually believes.
A Prayer After a Loss
Most of the praying around football happens before the game, which is backwards. The hour after a loss is when it is actually hard.
God, that one hurts. I do not want a lesson right now and I am not going to pretend I do. Help me be decent to my teammates on the bus. Give me the tape tomorrow and the guts to watch it. Amen.
Grief over a game is real even though a game is small. Both things are true at once.
A Prayer for the Guy Who Is Not Playing Tonight
A varsity roster can run past sixty and eleven are on the field. Somebody suits up every Friday knowing he will not take a snap that counts.
God, this is not where I thought I would be. Keep me from going bitter while I wait. Let me make the guys ahead of me better and mean it. Amen.
Can You Even Pray at a High School Football Game?
This comes up every season, and the short answer is yes.
Students praying on their own, together or alone, before a game or after one, has always been protected. Nobody can stop a group of players from taking a knee because they want to.
The part that got complicated involved coaches. In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, decided in 2022, the Supreme Court sided with a high school football coach who prayed at midfield after games, ruling that his personal prayer was protected speech. What the decision did not do is let a school require anybody to participate. A coach organizing a prayer that players feel they have to join is still a different thing from a coach praying.
If you are a player, none of this restricts you. If you are a coach, the line is between praying and leading.
How to Lead One Without Making It Weird
Most people who get asked to pray in a locker room have never done it and are terrified of sounding fake. A few things that help:
Say it like you talk. The second you switch into a church voice, everybody hears the switch. Normal words are fine. God is not grading the vocabulary.
Name one real thing. "Thanks for a healthy week of practice" beats four sentences of general gratitude, because it is true and specific and everybody in the room knows it.
Leave the score out of it. Ask for effort, for health, for the right head. Winning takes care of itself or it does not.
Stop before you want to. The shortest prayer in the room is almost always the best one.
The team sport organizations exist for a reason, and the case for high school activities has never really been about the wins. The prayer before the game is a decent moment to remember that.
Carrying It Past Friday
A pregame prayer is sixty seconds in a week with a hundred and sixty-eight hours in it. The athletes who get something real out of this are the ones doing something small on the other days.
Play With Faith sends one verse a day and breaks it down for the sport you play, then gives you one thing to do about it. The football breakdowns deal with blown assignments and depth charts, because that is where football players actually live. Free on the App Store.
More in this direction: bible verses for football players and what to pray before a game if you play something else.