Daily News High School Football Player of the Week: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Daily News football poll is and who runs it

Imperial Valley Press puts out this weekly Massachusetts football honor each autumn under the Daily News banner. Every poll in the series lives on Crowdsignal at poll.fm; the address on this page points at the Week 7 poll of the series, which has finished and now displays its results. A new poll opens for each week of the season, so the ballot a fan sees in October differs from the September one.

The Week 7 roll call drew nominees from Franklin, Wayland, Framingham, Natick, Bellingham, Medway, Algonquin and Nipmuc, each name paired with his school. The ballot asks a single question, so a visitor chooses between named players rather than between categories. In vertical terms this is a sport award, and its mechanic is an open poll with no purchase and no registration mentioned anywhere on it.

Because the series rotates weekly, results stay visible after a poll finishes, which is why the Week 7 page still lists its final standings. A fan arriving between seasons finds the most recent closed ballot rather than an empty page.

The dated record for this Massachusetts football poll

Three seasons of this series are on the books: 2023, 2024 and 2025. That three-year stretch is what marks the program as an annual part of the Massachusetts fall calendar. Voting occupies the September to November stretch, tracking the football season, and the series moves poll by poll through those months instead of holding one season-long ballot.

The Week 7 poll ended with a Franklin nominee on top at 29 percent from 211 votes, and a Wayland nominee runner-up at 17 percent from 122 votes. Those totals come from the results block on the finished poll and are the only published figures for this series.

Several details never appear anywhere the organizer maintains. The organizer posts no opening or closing dates for individual weekly ballots; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. No category roster exists because the ballot asks a single player-of-the-week question. Nothing on the poll states a per-voter rule, a daily limit or eligibility terms, and round dates for next season's polls remain unannounced.

If the pattern holds, the 2026 season brings the next run. No start date for it appears on the ballot page, so a fan planning around the series should watch for the season's first live poll rather than rely on a published calendar.

How a supporter votes on the live ballot

Backing a nominee takes under a minute. Open the current poll at poll.fm, read down the list, and every player appears with his school beside him. Tap the selection circle beside your pick and send the ballot from the foot of the page. The running percentage and count for each nominee show on the same page, and once a poll finishes those final figures stay put, exactly as they do on the Week 7 poll.

No sign-in appears anywhere on the ballot, so an account is not part of the Week 7 style flow. The page likewise states no daily return rule, leaving how often one person may come back during a live week unstated. Once a poll has finished, the submit control no longer registers anything, and the fan waits for the following week's poll in the series.

The question on the ballot pits named players against each other, since it carries a single player-of-the-week ask. Nominees come from Massachusetts communities such as Franklin, Wayland, Framingham, Natick, Bellingham and Medway, which is why traffic to the poll spikes from local school communities once the fall season begins.

How this ballot sits beside its Massachusetts neighbours

Massachusetts high school sports support spreads across several ballots covered here. The Eagle-Tribune Athlete of the Week answers to a different publisher's coverage area, and the Enterprise Brockton Athlete of the Week centers its nominees on Brockton. Statewide, the Massachusetts High School Athlete of the Week and the Massachusetts Gatorade Softball Player of the Year run under their own banners.

Season-wise, the Massachusetts High School Baseball Player of the Week belongs to spring and the Massachusetts High School Basketball Player of the Week to winter. The Daily News series differs in two ways: it follows football only, and it resets every week through the September to November season, putting a fresh Crowdsignal poll up each week rather than one ballot for the whole year.

Where a fan spends attention should follow the sport and the towns involved. This series pulls nominees from places like Franklin, Wayland, Framingham, Natick, Bellingham and Medway, while each sibling draws from its own publisher's territory, so the same athlete seldom lands on two of these ballots at once.

Strengthening support in a weekly poll like this one

Support here rides on the weekly reset: one open Crowdsignal poll, live to any visitor for a few days. Since each week brings a new poll, a push works best early, while the ballot still has runway before it closes. The organizer posts no rules about outside help on the poll page, and no per-voter ceiling is stated there, so the binding constraint is the weekly deadline, not a printed cap. For outreach suited to open ballots of this kind, see how to get more votes online, and for the wider service picture see buying award votes.