First off, if you've taken the time to click on this, thank you.

Today marks exactly 365 days since the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown high school sports, and our last set of "real" high school game coverage on that day included Iolani baseball's two-hit shutout over Mid-Pacific, and a pair of wins for Castle over Moanalua in both baseball and softball. The abruptly shortened 2019-20 season marked our eleventh year of coverage.

As much as it pains me to say it, I am more than a little concerned as to whether or not we will be able to embark on a twelfth season of high school sports.

From the start, I've always made it a point to have the ScoringLive brand not be overtly grassroots. Literally, the goal was to have our end users get the impression that we must be corporately backed and not a "Hawaii thing." And while I definitely think we have been successful in creating that public front, behind the scenes we still are very much a mom and pop operation.

We've operated with an annual budget of just south of $150k for the last few years, not great, but enough to get by. To some, that might seem like a big number, until you realize that amount covers not only payroll, but server infrastructure, equipment, travel and everything else associated with running a business. It's safe to say, I think, that we do more with less money than probably anyone in our line of work.

Of course, there have been a few close calls financially over the years, but things have always found a way to work out.

Until now.

As I'm sure many others are, I'm optimistic for a full reboot of sports in the 2021-22 sports season, especially as the likelihood of some spring sports being played sometime in April or May now seems all but certain.

That positivity, for our operation anyway, is clouded by the reality that heading into next season, we are facing a budget reduced by no less than 60% and potentially by as much as 80%. Even this school year, a 40% drop in our annual revenue forced us to severely taper our staffing in order to survive.

This is because our entire operation is funded fully through sponsorships and advertisement, and much of those available dollars have become increasingly limited due to the effects of the pandemic.

All that said, know this... if league games are played this school year, we will be back on the coverage grind in as great a capacity as we possibly can, that's for sure.

Our content model is, and will always be, not based on any kind of subscription. The number one goal was and continues to be making information and content available for anyone and everyone who might find it helpful and meaningful. 

But to say it straight out... ScoringLive won't survive going forward without the support of its user base.

Even in a shortened 2019-20 sports year, over 1.03 million unique visitors viewed more than 27 million pages of content on ScoringLive.com. In short, if just 10 percent of those users supported ScoringLive with as little as a one-time donation of $1 annually, just that result alone would be pretty game changing for us.

Support from local businesses or organizations would also be huge, and at the same time a win-win for interested companies looking for alignment and exposure to a diverse audience. If you know of a company that is keen on supporting high school sports and ScoringLive, please have them contact me directly.

It really feels out of place to be asking for help, but the challenge this pandemic has presented for countless other businesses is one and the same for ScoringLive as well.

As publisher and lead developer, I remain committed to doing all I can for Hawaii high school sports and the communities that anchor those schools, but truly need a collective effort in order to weather these unprecedented times and hopefully emerge from it even better in the end.

So if you can, please take a moment to show your support for ScoringLive, whether one-time, annually or monthly, by clicking on the button below.

And even if you don't have the means to make a contribution, I would still really appreciate it if you could email me at [email protected] and send a brief note or a story about how SL has made a positive impact on your school or a student athlete.

Mahalo again for your support of ScoringLive.