DeKalb County Athlete of the Week: Week 3: 2026-27: How Voting Works & How to Win

A county weekly ballot beside statewide year-end awards

Most Illinois athlete ballots a reader finds through this site are season-long or year-end awards covering the whole state. This one is built the other way round. The DeKalb County Athlete of the Week is scoped to a single county, DeKalb County in northern Illinois, and it resets every week rather than crowning one annual winner. The organizer is the Dekalb Daily Chronicle, the newspaper whose newsroom sits in DeKalb and whose stated coverage area is DeKalb County. The ballot host is Second Street, the same platform the Chronicle uses for its readers' choice and sweepstakes promotions.

That shape changes what a supporter is actually competing in. A weekly ballot means a short window, a fresh nominee list each time, and a result that is settled within days. Week 3 of the 2026-27 season is the live edition described on this page, voting September 13 through September 15, 2026, with the page stating voting ends Tuesday at noon. There is no long campaign season to plan around; the entire contest is over by Tuesday.

The contrast with the sibling programmes is sharp. The Herald-News Joliet Athlete of the Week is the nearest structural cousin, another weekly newspaper ballot, while the Illinois SI player-of-the-year ballots cover statewide fields over a full season. This page is about the DeKalb County weekly vote only.

The dated record: seasons, weeks and what is not printed

The series has run across three confirmed seasons: 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. Within a season the ballots are numbered by week, and the numbering runs deep: the 2025-26 season reached Week 40, with that ballot voting May 31 through June 2, 2026. The 2026-27 season opened with Week 1 voting August 30 through September 1, 2026, followed by Week 2 on September 6 through September 8, and Week 3, the edition this page covers, on September 13 through September 15, 2026.

Two timing facts are worth separating. The weekly window is short, roughly Sunday or Monday to Tuesday, and the ballot page itself states the close plainly: voting ends Tuesday at noon. The season, by contrast, stretches across the school year, from late August into early June, judging by the Week 40 dates of the previous season.

Equally relevant to a supporter is what the organizer leaves off the page. The ballot publishes no category list beyond the athlete-of-the-week vote itself, and no rules text covering a per-supporter limit, repeat voting or eligibility; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The page excerpt carries a title, a vote prompt and the Tuesday noon close, and nothing more. A supporter planning a push should therefore treat the live ballot, not any summary, as the authority on what is allowed in a given week.

How a supporter votes in the Week 3 ballot

Voting here takes almost no setup. A supporter opens the live ballot on the Chronicle's Second Street domain, reviews the nominated athletes for the current week, selects one and submits. The Week 3 ballot of the 2026-27 season sits at the URL listed in this page's sources, and it accepts votes from September 13 through September 15, 2026. The page states the deadline in its own words: voting ends Tuesday at noon.

Because the series is weekly, the first thing a supporter should check is which week is actually open. Arriving on a bookmarked link days late may land on a closed Week 3 while Week 4 is already collecting votes. The Chronicle posts each new ballot under its own address on the same domain, so the week number in the page title is the quickest check.

No account step, login requirement or eligibility rule is described in the ballot page's published text, and no per-supporter vote limit is stated there either. That absence of rules text does not amount to permission; it simply means the ballot page does not carry rules. A supporter who wants certainty about repeat voting should read whatever the live ballot displays at the point of voting, since the organizer may adjust the presentation week to week.

Where this ballot sits among its Illinois neighbours

The Chronicle's ballot sits in a busy Illinois field. Its closest neighbour in structure is the Herald-News Joliet Athlete of the Week, another weekly newspaper ballot, though that one serves the Joliet market rather than DeKalb County. The Herald & Review Illinois Player of the Week runs a similar weekly rhythm at statewide scope. The remaining siblings are year-end awards: the Illinois SI Boys Basketball Player of the Year and the Illinois SI football ballots for Class 1A, Class 4A and Class 5A.

What makes the DeKalb County ballot different is the combination of a very small geography and a very fast cycle. A statewide player-of-the-year vote draws supporters from every corner of Illinois and runs for months; a county weekly vote draws from the Chronicle's own readership and settles in two days. For a nominee's family, that means the entire mobilization effort, from sharing the link to rallying the school community, has to happen inside a single weekend.

The Chronicle's broader promotion calendar on Second Street also frames the ballot. The same domain carries the 2026 DeKalb County's Finest Readers' Choice, a graduate showcase gallery, and sweepstakes such as the 2026 Q4 $15,000 Sweepstakes running November 2 through December 9, 2026. The athlete ballot is the weekly sports entry in that lineup, distinct from the sweepstakes and the business-facing readers' choice vote.

Strengthening support inside a two-day window

A two-day ballot rewards preparation more than persuasion. The useful moves are the ones that work before the window even opens: identifying the athlete's natural base, teammates, families, school groups and local sports clubs in DeKalb County, and making sure the ballot link is already in their hands when the week goes live. Once voting opens on September 13, the remaining time is better spent on reminders than on persuasion, because the Tuesday noon close leaves little room for a second attempt.

The organizer publishes no rules text on outside help with this ballot, so no organizer position can be quoted here. What a supporter can rely on is the shape of the vote itself: a public Second Street ballot, a short window, and a result decided by whoever turns out. Our votes guide covers outreach methods that fit a window this short, and the award votes page describes the general options for award-style ballots without promising any particular outcome.