The Record Preseason Boys Soccer Player of the Year Poll: How Voting Works & How to Win

Who votes in The Record's preseason soccer poll and why it matters locally

Community is what carries this ballot. The Record, a California newspaper publishing at recordnet.com, puts its preseason spotlight on boys soccer across San Joaquin County, and the people who vote are the readers who already follow those programs: parents, classmates, teammates and local supporters who want their school's name at the top of the list. Because the poll asks readers to pick a player of the year before the season begins, the conversation starts in December, while families are still arguing about who deserves the nod.

The voting itself is hosted by Crowdsignal at poll.fm, and the live 2025-26 ballot sits at https://poll.fm/16427400. Voting takes the shape of a plain public click: every visitor can read the nominee list and register a choice, and the final tally is displayed on the same page after the window shuts. There is no entry form, no essay and no fee; the only action asked of a supporter is a click.

The table below sets out the fixed facts about the program.

The dated record behind The Record's soccer poll

The confirmed history of the program is short but specific. The program's confirmed editions are 2023 and 2025, which qualifies it as an annual program, and the 2025-26 ballot belongs to a December window: the poll.fm series dates the cycle to December 2025, with voting running past the new year. The close is the firmest date on the page. Voting was available until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, January 22, and the ballot now carries a Poll Closed banner.

The build-up to that close is documented too. The Record unveiled a list highlighting the top 25 boys soccer players from San Joaquin County before the ballot went live, and that list became the nominee pool readers chose from. When voting ended, the leading nominee, a forward, had drawn 40 percent of the 100,802 votes cast.

What the newspaper has not printed is the front edge of the window. No opening date for the 2025-26 ballot appears on the poll page, and no nomination round appears anywhere on it. The newspaper has also not printed a category list or a per-supporter ceiling for this soccer ballot; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The next edition would fall in the 2026 December window if the pattern of 2023 and 2025 holds, but The Record has not yet published a start date for it.

How a supporter votes in The Record's soccer poll today

Voting in The Record's soccer poll is deliberately simple, and the steps reflect exactly what the ballot asks. A supporter opens https://poll.fm/16427400 in any browser, reads through the preseason list of San Joaquin County boys soccer nominees, clicks the choice beside the preferred player and presses the vote button to log it. The page confirms the choice immediately and, after the window shuts, displays the final tally beside each name.

Two practical questions are left open by the ballot itself. The page prints no registration step, so nothing suggests an account is needed, but it also states no rule about devices, browsers or repeat visits from the same reader. And the poll prints nothing about how frequently one person may vote during the window, so anybody planning to return daily is working from the platform's default behaviour rather than a published rule from The Record.

Because this is a plain public vote, the whole exercise is a visit, a click and nothing more. The result is public as well: after the close, the poll.fm page keeps the tally on display, so a supporter can see exactly where the chosen player finished without any special access.

Where this soccer poll sits among California's high school vote programs

The Record's soccer poll is not the only public vote in its neighbourhood. The same California high school sports circuit supports a set of weekly player of the week programs: the California High School Baseball Player of the Week, the California High School Boys Basketball Player of the Week, a football player of the week vote for California high schools each fall, a girls basketball athlete of the week ballot from the same circuit, and a softball player of the week vote for California high schools in the spring. Each of those follows a sport through its season, week by week, and each is listed with its own ballot.

What makes The Record's poll different is its shape. This ballot is a player of the year vote rather than a weekly series, it is scoped to preseason boys soccer rather than to a sport in season, and its nominee pool comes from a top 25 list of San Joaquin County players rather than from a statewide field. The Fresno Bee Athlete of the Week is the closest structural cousin, since it is also a newspaper-run vote, but it rotates across sports and weeks while The Record's poll concentrates on a single sport at a fixed moment in the calendar.

Strengthening support for a nominee in The Record's soccer poll

Support for a nominee in this poll travels the same roads as the ballot itself. Because voting is a free public click on Crowdsignal, the most dependable help a player can get is visibility: teammates and families sharing the poll.fm link while the December window is open, and reminding people again before the January close. The Record prints no statement on its soccer ballot about outside assistance, paid promotion or automated voting tools, so anybody weighing those options is deciding without a published rule from the organizer. Our guide to getting more votes online sets out the honest options, and our page on whether buying votes is legal covers the rules question directly. Whatever route a supporter takes, the organizer's own ballot is the authority: it shows the nominee list, the close time and the result, and it is where any rule change would appear.