Colorado High School Athlete of the Week: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Colorado High School Athlete of the Week?

The Colorado High School Athlete of the Week is a statewide prep recognition published every week of the CHSAA sports calendar at si.com — the digital hub for Sports Illustrated's high school vertical, High School on SI, which operates on the SBLive (Scorebook Live) platform. Each week the Colorado editorial team compiles standout performances submitted by coaches, parents, and school contacts; a weekly ballot goes live; and Colorado fans vote to crown the winner.

• Administered by High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive) — a national prep-sports media network with dedicated state editions covering every CHSAA class from 1A to 5A.
• Hosted at si.com/high-school/colorado — Sports Illustrated's Colorado prep hub, which pairs the weekly vote with scores, rankings, and feature coverage.
• Colorado's CHSAA governs more than 350 member schools spanning five enrollment-based classifications (1A–5A), stretching from the densely competitive Front Range metro corridor to rural Western Slope communities.
• Vote cap: unlimited per person — no hourly cooldown, so every supporter may vote repeatedly throughout the open window.
• What's prohibited: automated scripts, macros, and bots — athletes whose vote tallies flag as non-human traffic face disqualification from that week's results.
• Winners earn a published article on si.com and recognition across SBLive's Colorado social channels — a third-party credential that surfaces in recruiting searches.

Because the poll spans the entire state — from Class 5A metro powerhouses like Valor Christian and Cherry Creek to Class 1A schools in the mountains and eastern plains — a remarkable week at any school can generate statewide visibility.

Which Colorado schools compete for this award?

Every CHSAA member school is eligible each week of every season. In practice, nominations cluster around programmes with deep alumni bases, active booster organisations, and strong recent athletic records — schools predominantly along the Front Range, though rural and mountain schools appear regularly when an athlete delivers a headline performance. The table below maps 13 of the most frequently competitive Colorado schools to their CHSAA class and home city.

Colorado's 5A classification — the state's largest enrollment tier — is dominated by metro Denver and Denver suburbs. Cherry Creek and Valor Christian are among the most decorated programmes in the state across multiple sports; Regis Jesuit has produced multiple national-level football and baseball recruits. Further north, Fossil Ridge represents the Fort Collins corridor and the Poudre School District network; Fairview anchors the Boulder Valley competitive scene.

Class 4A includes strong suburban programmes outside the 5A enrollment threshold. Palmer Ridge in Monument and Mullen in southwest Denver have loyal, tightly knit school communities that mobilise effectively for online polls. Air Academy in Colorado Springs claimed a national High School on SI Girls Basketball Athlete of the Week title in 2025 — evidence that Colorado's 4A schools compete at the top of the national platform.

How does the Colorado High School on SI Athlete of the Week vote work?

Voting opens at si.com each week after the SBLive Colorado editorial team publishes the ballot, typically early-to-mid week. The poll is free — no Sports Illustrated subscription, no account, and no personal information required. For a broader explanation of how online fan polls of this type function, see our guide to online contest voting.

There is no hourly cooldown. Unlike newspaper-hosted polls that enforce a one-vote-per-hour cap, the High School on SI poll permits each visitor to vote multiple times per session. Voting from multiple devices — a phone, a tablet, a home computer — each registers independently, and supporters can return throughout the week to cast additional votes before the Sunday 11:59 p.m. close.

What the platform does prohibit is automated activity: scripts, macros, browser-automation bots, or any mechanical process that generates high-volume traffic without genuine human interaction. Vote tallies that trip the platform's anomaly-detection thresholds are removed and can disqualify an athlete from that week's results. Real, sustained manual voting by a large community is structurally different from automated fraud — and it is the foundation of every high-scoring campaign on this poll.

The poll is accessible nationally. Supporters in other states, alumni at college, and extended family across the country can vote just as easily as fans in Colorado — which is why remote networks (college group chats, family group texts, church communities) matter as much as the immediate school community.

How is the Athlete of the Week winner chosen?

Once the poll closes at Sunday 11:59 p.m., the nominee with the highest vote total is named the Colorado High School on SI Athlete of the Week for that week — a straight popular vote with no editorial weighting after the ballot goes live. The SBLive Colorado editorial team holds control only over who appears on the ballot, not who wins it.

1. Performance submission: coaches, parents, athletic directors, and school contacts submit standout performances to the SBLive Colorado team by email or through the platform's submission system — typically covering Friday-night and Saturday results.
2. Editorial curation: the Colorado SBLive team selects the week's nominees by editorial judgement, weighting the statistical impact of the performance, the competitive level of the opponent, and the sport-season context. Not every submission earns a spot.
3. Public vote opens: the ballot goes live at si.com/high-school/colorado, usually Monday or Tuesday, and runs through Sunday 11:59 p.m. Live vote totals are visible throughout the window.
4. Winner announced: the winner is published Monday on si.com with a feature article, and recognition is amplified across SBLive's Colorado social media channels. The article remains live indefinitely — searchable by any college coach, scout, or admissions reader.

There is no panel override and no tie-breaker beyond vote count. An athlete who generates a smaller community following but earns outsized support through strategic network activation can beat a statistically superior nominee from a larger school — vote-total mobilisation is independent of on-field performance once the ballot is set.

Colorado CHSAA season timeline and when the poll is most competitive

The poll runs across all three CHSAA high school sports seasons. Competitive intensity, typical vote volumes, and which sports produce the most nominees all shift season by season. The table below maps the Colorado Athlete of the Week poll to the official CHSAA calendar.

Fall is the most competitive season. Football nights in the Denver metro — particularly Centennial League and Continental League matchups involving Valor Christian, Cherry Creek, and Grandview — generate the year's peak vote tallies. Spring track and field weeks from smaller programmes can sometimes be decided with a few hundred votes when the mobilisation intensity is lower.

How to build votes for your Colorado Athlete of the Week nominee

Because the High School on SI poll has no hourly cap, the math is straightforward: more people voting more frequently across the full week equals a larger total. The tactical question is which networks to activate, in what order, and with what message. For a comprehensive playbook covering general vote-mobilisation strategy, see our how-to voting guide. The notes below are Colorado-specific.

Organic network activation (always first)

The most effective single move is putting the direct si.com ballot link — not just the athlete's name — in front of every realistic voter within the first six hours of the poll going live. Each device that clicks the link and votes is a real, legitimate contribution to the tally. Front Range families with tight school-community networks can generate substantial organic totals through coordinated group-chat messaging alone.

• Post the direct poll link in all team group chats, parent WhatsApp and Remind threads, and booster club email lists the day the poll opens.
• Share on Instagram, Facebook, and X (Twitter) with the athlete's name, school, sport, and explicit "vote at this link" language — vague posts without the link convert poorly.
• Activate church, neighbourhood, and alumni networks where relevant — Valor Christian, Mullen, and Regis Jesuit have particularly cohesive faith-community alumni bases that respond well to this outreach.
• Ask coaches to post from official school athletic accounts — these reach parent networks who may not follow the athlete personally.
• Send a targeted reminder 24–36 hours before the Sunday close — many voters intend to support but forget without a second nudge.

When organic reach needs reinforcement

When every realistic local network has been tapped and the nominee is still trailing a well-organised opponent, some families turn to paid vote promotion services to reach additional real voters. If you take that route, use a service that delivers genuine, paced votes from real users — rapid automated bursts trip the platform's anomaly detection and result in vote removal. Our sports fan poll votes service is built around cap-matched, paced delivery that mirrors organic voting patterns.

Rules, integrity, and the buy-votes question

The Colorado High School on SI Athlete of the Week is a reader-engagement fan poll, not a legal sweepstakes. It carries no cash prize, no formal contest law framework, and no athlete eligibility consequences under CHSAA regulations. The operative restrictions are the High School on SI platform's own technical terms — specifically the prohibition on automated tools. For a broader, jurisdiction-neutral look at what "buying votes" means across different online poll types, see our full guide.

Two types of activity produce very different outcomes on this platform:

• Automated bots and scripts — high-frequency mechanical requests that mimic rapid voting. These trigger the platform's anomaly filters, result in vote removal, and provide no lasting benefit. They are the activity that High School on SI's terms specifically prohibit.
• Paid outreach to real human voters — genuine people voting from their own devices, reached through a paid promotion channel rather than a personal network. Structurally this is equivalent to a booster email reaching an additional audience of real voters. The contest's published terms focus on automated tools, not on the method by which real voters learn about the poll.

Whether that distinction satisfies the intent of the platform's rules is a judgement each athlete's family and school community must make after reviewing the current official terms. The risk profile for a newspaper fan poll of this type — no cash prize, no regulatory framework, no CHSAA eligibility consequence — is primarily reputational rather than legal or athletic. Weigh that honestly against the recognition value of a win on a Sports Illustrated platform that college coaches and admissions staff routinely search.