Fan's choice for Journal Star boys basketball player of the year: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Journal Star fan's choice award is and who runs it

This program is a public-vote award in the sport vertical, put on by the Journal Star, an Illinois newspaper whose online home is pjstar.com. Readers choose the player of the year in boys basketball for the paper's coverage area, and the full name the paper prints for itself in that coverage is The Journal Star.

The balloting itself does not happen on the paper's own site. Crowdsignal hosts the vote at the poll.fm address, and the confirmed ballot for the 2025 edition lives at poll.fm/15137380. That single-address setup is typical of reader polls on this platform: one poll number per edition, a straight pick list of nominees, and a submission button.

The nominees come from prep programs across the paper's coverage area. Communities represented on the 2025 ballot include Peoria, East Peoria, Morton, Princeville and Metamora, each attached to a nominated player through his school. The paper publishes the roster itself, and the roster is the whole ballot: there is no separate nomination form for readers to fill.

Facts at a glance

The dated timeline for the Journal Star fan poll

Confirmed editions of this poll ran in 2023 and 2025. The 2025 ballot carries the title Fan's choice for 2025 Journal Star boys basketball player of the year and now shows a Poll Closed notice, which is how a finished edition presents itself on poll.fm.

The 2025 window fell in March. The Journal Star's own coverage stated that the poll would be open until noon on Wednesday, March 11, with the winner being revealed one day prior to the IHSA state finals. That gives the edition a hard close and a reveal date, but the paper did not print the day the poll opened, so the length of the window can only be read from the ballot while it is live.

The ballot page publishes no rules text. The number of times one reader may vote, and any eligibility conditions, are nowhere stated; check the live ballot when it posts. The same holds for the shape of future editions, since the paper does not announce the next poll in advance.

What the timeline supports is a spring rhythm: both confirmed editions sit in years when Illinois prep hoops wraps up, the 2025 close was tied to the IHSA state finals schedule, and 2026 is the next year a ballot would be expected. Until the paper posts a new poll number, the 2025 ballot is the most recent edition of this award.

How a supporter votes on the Journal Star fan poll

Voting is a short sequence with a single decision in it. A supporter opens the ballot the Journal Star hosts on Crowdsignal at poll.fm/15137380, reads the nominee list the paper published, selects the radio option beside one player, and submits the form. The ballot identifies each nominee by name and by the community his school represents, so a reader from Morton, Princeville or anywhere else in the coverage area can find their pick without digging through brackets or write-in boxes.

There is no registration step published on the ballot and no separate nomination round for readers to enter. The paper nominates, the readers choose. Once a selection is submitted, the Crowdsignal form confirms the vote on screen, which is the only receipt the platform gives.

Timing matters more than anything else in this mechanic. The 2025 poll carried a stated deadline, noon on the closing day in March, and a Poll Closed notice replaces the form afterward. A vote sent after the close counts for nothing, so the practical move is to arrive soon after the window opens instead of holding out for the final hours.

One caution about repeat voting: because the paper prints no per-reader rule on the ballot, a supporter who plans to return daily is guessing at the platform's behavior. The visible form is the only guide, and reading it on the day you vote is the reliable check.

How this ballot sits beside its Illinois neighbours

Illinois has a cluster of publisher-run fan votes, and this one is distinguishable by publisher, season and format. The Journal Star poll honours the season's top player in boys basketball, timed to the end of the prep season, while most of its neighbours on this site are weekly athlete of the week series: the Herald-News Joliet Athlete of the Week, the Herald & Review Illinois Player of the Week, and the Daily Chronicle DeKalb County Athlete of the Week.

Two state-level cousins are closer in spirit. The Illinois SI Boys Basketball Player of the Year covers the same sport statewide but under a different publisher, and the football versions, the Illinois SI Football Class 1A Player of the Year and the Illinois SI Football Class 4A Player of the Year, apply the player of the year format to a fall sport.

What makes the Journal Star poll distinct is its coverage area. Its nominee list draws from communities such as Peoria, East Peoria, Morton, Princeville and Metamora, which puts the award at the size of a region rather than a state. A supporter deciding where effort is best spent should treat the two as separate ballots with separate rosters, since a vote cast on one carries zero weight on the other.

Strengthening support in the Journal Star fan vote

The mechanic here rewards early, wide sharing. The ballot is a single address on poll.fm, the window closes at a stated hour, and the roster is fixed by the paper, so the only lever a supporter controls is how many people see the link before the noon deadline. Sending the poll.fm address directly, rather than a link that routes through the paper's coverage, removes one step between a supporter and the form.

The open question is where outside help stands: the Journal Star has not published rules text on the ballot, so there is no stated policy on automated or purchased votes to point to. That silence cuts in every direction at once. Nothing on the page encourages outside help, and a nominee whose tally spikes irregularly has no published rule protecting the result. The honest position for a family, a school community or a player is to rally real readers, each casting their own selection inside the window.

If you are weighing paid support despite that gap, read buying award votes first, and keep in mind that nothing, ours included, can promise victory in a poll the organizer runs on its own terms. The paper reveals the winner itself, one day before the IHSA state finals, and that result is the only one that counts.