Colorado High School Softball Player of the Year: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Colorado High School Softball Player of the Year vote?

The Colorado High School Softball Player of the Year fan vote is published by High School on SI — Sports Illustrated's prep-sports vertical, built on the SBLive / Scorebook Live platform — at si.com/high-school/colorado. Each fall, as CHSAA's girls softball season concludes, the platform opens dedicated fan ballots covering the state's top performers, typically running separate polls for pitchers and hitters before naming an overall player of the year.

• Hosted at si.com/high-school/colorado, Sports Illustrated's statewide Colorado prep hub covering all CHSAA member schools.
• Colorado softball is a CHSAA fall sport — the regular season begins in mid-August, regional brackets open in early October, and the state championship is held in mid-to-late October.
• Voting is free with no hourly cooldown — the 2025 hitter and pitcher ballots both closed Tuesday, May 27 at 8 p.m. PT, with the overall POY recognition following.
• The 2025–26 Gatorade Colorado Softball Player of the Year — a separate editorial award — was Emmaline Humphreys of Holy Family, a Stanford commit who posted a 0.81 ERA with 284 strikeouts in 129 innings while leading the Tigers to the 4A state championship.
• CHSAA governs softball across Classes 3A, 4A, and 5A; the SBLive/SI vote draws nominees from all three divisions statewide.
• Winning the fan poll earns the athlete a published credential at si.com — searchable by college coaches and recruiters across Colorado and nationally.

Which Colorado softball schools and programs appear in this vote?

The SI/SBLive ballot draws nominees from all CHSAA-sanctioned Colorado high school softball programs statewide, spanning Classes 3A through 5A. The table below lists the most competitive programs by class, conference, and location — these are the schools whose athletes most frequently appear on end-of-season ballots and all-state lists.

Lutheran High School in Parker is the most decorated 4A program of the modern era, winning four consecutive CHSAA Class 4A state championships from 2021 through 2024. Holy Family dethroned Lutheran in the 2025 4A final, beating Windsor in the championship game. In 5A, Chatfield won in 2023 and Riverdale Ridge captured its first-ever title in 2024. In 3A, Eaton has been dominant — winning four straight state titles through 2024.

The Front Range corridor — stretching from Fort Collins through Denver to Parker and Highlands Ranch — concentrates the majority of competitive 4A and 5A programs. Northern Colorado (Windsor, Eaton, Fossil Ridge, Erie, Riverdale Ridge) has produced a disproportionate share of POY nominees, reflecting the region's strong softball culture and large pool of Division I college prospects.

Who have been recent Colorado softball Player of the Year recipients?

Both the CHSAA-recognised all-state designations and the separate Gatorade Colorado Softball Player of the Year award — an editorial honour based on athletic performance, academics, and character — provide the clearest public record of recent POY-caliber athletes in Colorado. The fan vote at si.com/high-school/colorado draws from this same pool of standout performers each fall.

Emmaline Humphreys of Holy Family represents the archetype of a Colorado softball POY candidate: a two-way player excelling in the circle and at the plate, leading her team to a state championship, committed to a major Division I program. Her 284 strikeouts across 129 innings at the high school level — with only 27 walks — reflect the calibre of pitching that earns statewide recognition.

Kendall Ferguson of Valor Christian, the 2024 CHSAA honouree, highlights how consistently the Continental League's two powerhouses — Valor and Lutheran — produce top-of-ballot candidates. Both programs train athletes who routinely commit to Pac-12, Big 12, and SEC programs, making the fan vote a genuine statewide competition between deeply supported communities.

How does the Colorado softball POY fan vote work on SI.com?

The fan vote runs at si.com/high-school/colorado and is free to participate in — no Sports Illustrated subscription, no SBLive account, and no personal data are required. High School on SI's editorial staff nominates Colorado softball standouts from across Classes 3A–5A; the ballot goes live and fans vote freely until the announced close deadline. For a plain-English overview of how online prep-sports fan polls operate generally, see our guide to online contest voting.

How is the ballot structured?

For Colorado softball, SI/SBLive has run separate positional or category polls — including a top hitters ballot and a top pitchers ballot — alongside an overall POY recognition. The 2025 hitter and pitcher ballots each closed on Tuesday, May 27 at 8 p.m. PT. Unlike weekly polls that impose an hourly vote cap, this annual poll has no stated per-person cap — which means total mobilisation volume across the community matters more than hourly drip strategy.

What does a vote cost, and who can vote?

Voting is free. Any internet user anywhere in the country can reach the ballot at si.com/high-school/colorado and cast a vote. Family members outside Colorado — including out-of-state relatives, college teammates on recruiting visits, and alumni living elsewhere — can all vote just as easily as local fans. This geographic openness is one reason early network mobilisation matters: the pool of reachable voters is much larger than the local zip code.

How is the Colorado softball POY winner chosen, and what does a win mean?

The winner of the SI/SBLive Colorado softball POY fan vote is the athlete with the highest vote total when the poll closes. The editorial team at High School on SI controls the nomination stage — deciding which athletes appear on the ballot — but the outcome is determined entirely by the fan community. There is no editorial panel score layered on top of the vote count.

1. Nomination: High School on SI's Colorado editorial team selects nominees based on season performance, CHSAA all-state recognition, state tournament results, and submissions from coaches and school contacts. Not every standout earns a ballot spot — the editorial team curates the list.
2. Ballot opens: The poll goes live at si.com/high-school/colorado, usually near the end of the CHSAA fall softball season or at the beginning of the following calendar year, and a close deadline is published on the ballot page.
3. Fan voting: Any fan can vote freely with no hourly cap until the stated deadline. Vote totals are visible throughout the window.
4. Winner published: After close, High School on SI announces the winner in an article at si.com, with the athlete's stats, school, and season highlights. The result is indexed and searchable permanently.

A published recognition at Sports Illustrated's prep vertical carries legitimate recruiting weight — college coaches searching an athlete's name will find the SI.com result in the first page of results. For committed players heading to programs like Stanford, Michigan, or Tennessee, the recognition reinforces a narrative already established by the college offer. For uncommitted players, a visible fan-voted POY at a national publication can add third-party credibility to a recruiting profile.

How do you build votes for the Colorado softball POY poll?

Building a competitive vote total for this annual fall poll comes down to two things: the depth of the athlete's real network, and how early that network is activated once the ballot goes live. Because there is no hourly cap — unlike the Gannett weekly polls — volume and timing matter more than hourly drip consistency. For a comprehensive tactical playbook on online prep-sport polls, see our full how-to guide; the Colorado-softball-specific notes below focus on what moves the needle for this market.

Two Colorado-specific channels consistently produce outsized results for this poll. First, club softball networks — organisations like Colorado Impact, Colorado Gators, and Front Range Softball Club maintain active parent and player communities that cross CHSAA school boundaries. A nominee whose club team spans multiple high schools can activate voters from programs other than her own. Second, the Northern Colorado prep community — which includes Windsor, Eaton, Fossil Ridge, Riverdale Ridge, and Erie — is disproportionately active on prep sports social media, with local sports pages on Facebook and Twitter maintaining audiences of several thousand engaged followers.

When organic reach has been fully deployed and a nominee is still trailing, some families and programs use a paid vote-promotion service to extend reach to genuine additional voters. If that route is taken, the service must deliver real, paced votes that do not resemble automated script traffic — the SI/SBLive platform removes vote patterns consistent with bots. Our sports fan poll votes service is designed around exactly this compliant delivery model.

Colorado CHSAA softball season timeline and voting window

Colorado is one of the few states where girls softball is played entirely in the fall under the state athletic association calendar. Understanding that timeline is essential for anyone planning a POY vote campaign — the ballot opens and closes on the CHSAA fall schedule, not the spring schedule typical of softball in most other states.

The fall-sport calendar means Colorado softball POY campaigns compete with football season for community attention. This is both a challenge — football dominates October sports coverage — and an opportunity. Softball families and booster networks that are already primed for state tournament runs in October are in a highly activated community state. A nomination that lands during or immediately after the state championship weekend, when community excitement peaks, is well-positioned for a strong opening vote surge.

For context on other Colorado prep recognition contests and how the state's athletic calendar shapes fan voting patterns, visit our Colorado contest hub. For the full index of US prep-sport and community fan votes, see our USA contest guide.