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

What is the Maryland High School Athlete of the Week?

The Maryland High School Athlete of the Week — hosted by High School on SI, Sports Illustrated's national prep-sports vertical operated by the Arena Group — is a recurring statewide fan poll published at si.com/high-school/maryland each week of the Maryland athletic calendar. Journalists covering Maryland prep sports nominate standout performers from the week's results, then fans vote to determine who earns the recognition. The platform runs comparable polls for nearly every U.S. state, but the Maryland edition is distinctive in drawing from two entirely separate governing bodies: MPSSAA public schools and MIAA private schools.

• Hosted at si.com/high-school/maryland — the Sports Illustrated prep-sports hub for the state, part of the Arena Group's national High School on SI network.
• Covers athletes from all 24 Maryland jurisdictions, spanning MPSSAA Classes 1A through 4A for public schools and MIAA A- and B-conference private schools in the Baltimore metro.
• Sport-specific polls run throughout each season — football offensive and defensive players of the week in fall, basketball players in winter, baseball and softball in spring.
• Voting closes every Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time; the winner is announced the following week in a new poll article.
• The poll is free, requires no account or personal information, and is accessible to voters anywhere — family and supporters outside Maryland vote at the same URL.
• SI.com's Maryland high school sports section also publishes season rankings, all-region teams, and playoff brackets, giving the Athlete of the Week credential real editorial context and reach among coaches and recruiters who follow prep coverage.

A Maryland Athlete of the Week win on SI.com produces a nationally distributed, searchable credential — useful for college recruiting profiles and school athletic communications throughout the year.

Which Maryland schools compete in this poll?

SI.com draws nominees from across the full state — both the MPSSAA public school system and the Baltimore metro's MIAA private schools regularly produce weekly ballot entries. The table below covers a representative cross-section of frequently nominated programmes, arranged by governing body, conference, and city.

How the two governing bodies shape the ballot

MPSSAA public schools are sorted into Classes 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A based on enrollment. Class 4A — the largest schools, concentrated in Montgomery, Prince George's, Anne Arundel, and Baltimore counties — produces the highest raw enrollment numbers and therefore the deepest organised fan bases for online polls. Class 3A suburban and exurban schools like Damascus (Montgomery) and Urbana (Frederick) have tight community followings that mobilise effectively despite smaller student bodies.

The MIAA's A Conference operates largely independently from MPSSAA structures and includes some of the most nationally recognised private programmes in the Mid-Atlantic: St. Frances Academy has won multiple national girls basketball championships; Mount St. Joseph and Calvert Hall maintain large alumni networks spanning decades of graduates who actively follow and vote in recognition polls. The MIAA's Baltimore Catholic tradition is a significant vote-mobilisation factor — alumni communities from 1960s and 1970s graduating classes are still active on social media and in school group chats.

How does Maryland Athlete of the Week voting work on SI.com?

Each poll is published as a standalone article at si.com/high-school/maryland, usually mid-week, with the list of nominees for that sport and that week. The voting widget sits inside the article and shows each nominee's name, school, and running total. Voting is free and requires no SI.com subscription, no account login, and no personal information. For a broader explainer on how online fan polls like this function across newspaper and sports-media platforms, see our full guide to online contest voting.

Voting closes every Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time — that is midnight on the East Coast (Maryland time). The specific close date appears in the poll article itself; verify it there rather than assuming a rolling seven-day window, because SI occasionally adjusts the window around holidays and playoff weeks.

The platform enforces per-submission rate limits on its polling widget. Unlike hourly-resetting newspaper polls, SI's poll structure varies: some weeks the cap allows a single vote per browser session, others allow periodic re-voting. Checking the active poll page is the reliable way to determine the current mechanic for any specific week.

Polls are accessible from any device with a standard browser — phone, tablet, or desktop — and from any location in the world. Out-of-state family members and supporters can find the poll at the same URL and vote without any Maryland-specific restriction.

How is the Maryland Athlete of the Week winner decided?

The nominee with the highest vote total when the poll closes on Sunday at 11:59 p.m. PT is named the winner. SI.com's prep journalists control the nomination stage — selecting which athletes appear on the ballot based on weekly game reports, stat submissions, and coach contacts — but the outcome is determined entirely by fan vote count, with no editorial weighting applied after the poll opens.

1. Performance reporting: coaches, parents, and school media contacts submit weekly game results and standout stats to the SI.com Maryland desk. Performance from Thursday through the following Wednesday typically makes the next ballot.
2. Nominee selection: SI.com's Maryland reporter curates the weekly ballot, usually listing six to eighteen nominees depending on the sport and the competitive depth of that particular week.
3. Voting window: the poll goes live mid-week and remains open until Sunday 11:59 p.m. PT. Live totals are visible throughout the window.
4. Winner announced: the following week's poll article declares the prior winner and opens the next ballot. The win also appears in SI.com's Maryland high school news feed, searchable nationally.

How do Maryland supporters get more votes for their athlete?

Every vote campaign for this poll begins with the same practical foundation: the direct article URL, in front of every realistic network, as fast as possible after the poll opens. Generic "go vote" requests underperform; messages that name the athlete, the school, the sport, and the exact poll link convert two to three times better. For the full tactical playbook on building totals for online sports polls, see our detailed online voting guide — the Maryland-specific notes below focus on what actually moves the needle in this state's community structure.

Two Maryland-specific mobilisation patterns are consistently the most powerful. First, MIAA alumni networks — particularly the Baltimore Catholic schools — have generational depth. Calvert Hall, Mount St. Joseph, and Loyola Blakefield each have tens of thousands of living alumni; a single post to a class Facebook group or an alumni association email can reach several hundred additional voters within an hour. Second, large Montgomery County MPSSAA schools like Quince Orchard, Sherwood, and Damascus serve dense, well-connected suburban communities with active Nextdoor and school-booster Facebook groups that drive real vote volumes.

When every organic network has been activated and the nominee is still trailing, some families and booster groups use a paid promotion service to reach additional genuine voters. If you pursue that route, choose a service that delivers paced, human votes — not bot injections — and read the current poll terms. Our sports fan poll votes service is built specifically around this model.

Rules and the buy-votes question for the SI.com Maryland poll

SI.com's athlete polls are reader-engagement features with no cash prize and no Maryland prize-promotion law framework. The platform's standard terms prohibit automated tools that artificially inflate vote totals — bots, scripts, or mechanisms that bypass rate limits. For a full, balanced treatment of poll voting legality, see our buy-votes guide; the Maryland-specific notes are below.

The meaningful distinction that entrants should understand:

• Automated bot scripts — rapid or repeated requests from the same device fingerprint or IP address that ignore the platform's rate limits. These violate SI.com's poll terms, are detectable by the platform, and result in vote removal from the tally.
• Paid outreach to real human voters — real people casting genuine votes from their own devices within whatever cap the platform enforces. Structurally, this is identical to a booster association email reaching five hundred more real supporters — it is fans voting, reached through a paid channel rather than a free one.

Whether that distinction satisfies the spirit of SI.com's specific platform terms is a judgement each entrant must make after reading the current poll page. The stakes in a no-prize online recognition poll are entirely reputational — the athlete and family should weigh that honestly against what a win would mean for recruiting visibility, school recognition, and community morale.

Maryland Athlete of the Week season timeline — MPSSAA and MIAA calendar

SI.com publishes Maryland athlete polls throughout both the MPSSAA public school calendar and the MIAA's parallel schedule. The two bodies run broadly aligned seasons but occasionally diverge on start dates and playoff timing. The table below maps the poll to Maryland's real athletic year.

Every active poll closes on Sunday at 11:59 p.m. PT — that is midnight entering Monday, Maryland time. The specific Sunday is stated in the poll article; do not assume a fixed seven-day window, as SI.com adjusts for holiday weekends and playoff scheduling without advance notice.

Why lacrosse weeks are uniquely competitive in Maryland

Lacrosse is a Maryland-specific factor unlike most other states. Maryland is widely regarded as the birthplace of modern lacrosse, and MIAA and MPSSAA lacrosse programmes produce nationally ranked athletes. Spring lacrosse weeks can generate vote totals comparable to fall football weeks at top MIAA schools, because the lacrosse alumni base is both geographically broad and digitally active.

For context on how the Maryland athletic year fits broader state-level fan contests and community recognition polls, visit our Maryland contest guide. For the full US index, see the USA contest guide.