FATE OF KHSAA SCOREBOARD IN QUESTION

Frank Riherd, the longtime architect of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s online Scoreboard, announced this week that he will retire from maintaining the system effective June 30 after being diagnosed with ALS, a progressive neurological disease.

In a statement released Jan. 10, Riherd said the decision was driven solely by his health, noting that he needs to focus on the time ahead. Riherd has operated the Scoreboard since its launch in 1997, building it into one of the most comprehensive and accurate high school sports reporting systems in the country.

According to a profile published by the Bowling Green Daily News, Riherd’s path to becoming the steward of Kentucky high school sports data was unconventional. He did not play sports in high school and instead gravitated toward music and numbers, taking piano lessons and playing the organ at Glasgow Baptist Church.

His interest in statistics was sparked during Glasgow High School’s memorable 1968 basketball run to the KHSAA Sweet Sixteen championship, when the Scotties captured the state title at Freedom Hall.

The Daily News reported that Riherd began keeping statistics for Glasgow’s football and basketball teams the following year, drawn not to the games themselves but to the data they produced. His aptitude for numbers later earned him admission to the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he studied electrical engineering and worked on early data-analysis software.

After an engineering career that took him to California, Germany and France, Riherd returned to Kentucky in the late 1990s with an idea to use the emerging internet to share statewide high school sports scores. With encouragement from his father and support from then-KHSAA assistant commissioner Julian Tackett, the Scoreboard officially launched in the fall of 1997, the Daily News reported.

Over nearly three decades, Riherd refined the system from manually reported scores to a fully integrated platform used by schools, coaches, media outlets and the KHSAA itself. The Scoreboard has logged hundreds of thousands of games and millions of individual statistics, becoming a cornerstone of high school sports coverage across the state.

Riherd said he hopes the KHSAA finds a successor who shares his commitment to accuracy and detail, adding that the athlete has always been the system’s “North Star. @KHSAA

Announcement Post by Frank Riherd Follows:
Update on the Scoreboard
January 10, 2026
It is with a heavy heart that I announce I will no longer maintain the Scoreboard, effective June 30, 2026. Due to my health, I am unable to continue fulfilling my contract to publish it.

In mid-November, I was diagnosed with ALS (commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). It is a rare, irreversible disease with no cure, though there is ongoing and encouraging research. ALS typically does not affect cognitive function, but it causes progressive paralysis over time. Life expectancy varies, but is generally limited.

For this reason, and only this reason, I am discontinuing my work on the Scoreboard. I need to focus on my health and on the time I have ahead.

This week has been one of the most difficult of my life, as I have shared this news with my family, the KHSAA, and now with you.

Since 2024, some of what I've developed has been transferred to another vendor. They chose not to implement key pieces. Some of those are important. Unfortunately, there is no replacement yet for RPI, Game Stats and Leaders, which require constant handholding.

I do not yet know how the KHSAA will replace the Scoreboard, but it will no longer be updated on this website as of June 30. The same applies to the iPhone app. I hope the vendor they find shares my penchant for detail and "getting it right".

Since 1997, the Scoreboard has recorded over 650 thousand games representing almost 30 million points/runs/goals. Each of those points comes from a player competing as part of a team. And we should never lose sight of the fact that they are the reason we do all of this. That's our North Star — the athlete.

I remember a few years back a volleyball coach contacted me to correct a set score from 25-17 to 25-16. This didn't affect the outcome of the game or even the score. Yet, it was important to him that it be correct. Wow! I came away understanding that every point counts.

The past 29 years have been the most productive, exciting, and rewarding of my professional life. Through the Scoreboard and my work with the KHSAA, I was fortunate to contribute—if only in a small way—to high school sports in Kentucky. I am deeply grateful for that opportunity, and I especially thank Commissioner Tackett for the trust he placed in me. Together, we did innovative and forward-looking work at a time when many were still unsure what the Internet could be used for.
Frank T. Riherd
January 10, 2026
I also had the privilege of working with the KHSAA as the Association's trophy vendor, as did my father, and am thankful that the relationship between the KHSAA and Riherd's Trophies will continue long after my journey has ended.