Coaching high school football has always been a labor of love for Castle's Nelson Maeda, but all that labor is not being shown much love these days.

Already stretched to the limit after recent staff reductions, Maeda and every other paid public high school coach in Hawai'i are being asked to forfeit 25 percent of their small existing stipend to help with the Department of Education's budget crisis.

And as an outreach counselor at Castle, Maeda now faces a 7.9 percent loss in pay from his full-time job as a result of the 17 furlough days mandated by the new Hawai'i State Teachers Association contract.

"As a single parent, this hurts," said Maeda, who has two kids in high school and one in elementary.

Addressing the plight of Maeda and other coaches around the state is one of the missions of the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association's "SOS" (Save Our Sports) campaign, which has now raised $874,646 to help offset budget cuts that left public schools with a 36 percent reduction in allocations compared to 2008-09.

Those cuts included a 29.6 percent reduction in coaches stipends, which means most athletic directors have eliminated many paid positions. At Castle, that left only the head coach as a paid position on the JV football level; the assistants work for free.

"They still coach because they want to see the job done," Maeda said.

The request for current paid coaches to forfeit 25 percent of their stipends is being circulated to every public school coach across the state; the reduction will only go into effect if there is 100 percent participation.

This past week's SOS contributions included $10,000 from Tamura Super Market, Wai'anae.

To contribute to the SOS fund, make a check payable to "HHSAA SOS Account" and send it to HHSAA, P.O. Box 62029, Honolulu, HI 96839, or visit www.sportshigh.com or any First Hawaiian Bank branch (checks only).

Contributors at First Hawaiian Bank branches who are willing to be recognized are asked to contact the HHSAA office at 587-4495.

Read his blog on high school sports at http://preptalk.honadvblogs.com.