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

What is the Minnesota High School Athlete of the Week on High School on SI?

The Minnesota High School Athlete of the Week is a recurring weekly fan-vote contest hosted by High School on SI — the prep-sports vertical of Sports Illustrated — at si.com/high-school/minnesota. It covers all 504 MSHSL member schools across Minnesota's six enrollment-based classes (6A, 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, A) and eight geographic sections, making it the broadest statewide prep-athlete recognition poll in Minnesota.

• Hosted at si.com/high-school/minnesota by High School on SI, the SBLive-powered prep sports arm of Sports Illustrated (Arena Group).
• Runs weekly throughout each MSHSL sports season — fall, winter, and spring — across all sanctioned sports.
• Voting is free and unlimited for human fans; no account or registration is required to vote.
• Polls close Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time; the winner is announced Monday on the same platform.
• Nominations are accepted by emailing [email protected] with "MNHSAW Nomination" in the subject line.
• Automated scripts and macros are strictly prohibited — athletes whose totals include script-generated votes are disqualified, not just penalised.

Unlike many regional newspaper polls that cap at one vote per hour per device, this poll places no ceiling on legitimate human voting — meaning the total votes cast can be very large, and the competitive gap between top-networked programmes and smaller schools can be significant.

Which Minnesota schools and MSHSL sections compete in this poll?

Because the poll is statewide, nominees can come from any of Minnesota's 504 MSHSL member schools across all six classes and all eight sections. In practice, metro-area Class 6A and 5A schools with large student bodies dominate through sheer network size — but Greater Minnesota athletes win regularly, as Mesabi East's Marta Forsline illustrated when her rural Iron Range community mobilised a poll-winning vote total. The table below lists representative schools by MSHSL class and section.

The MSHSL divides Minnesota into eight geographic sections for tournament play. Metro-area sections (Sections 3, 4, 5, and 6) contain the state's largest schools and most concentrated alumni networks — Eden Prairie, Edina, and Wayzata alone draw from communities with household incomes and social-media engagement rates that translate directly into high poll participation. Sections 7 and 8 cover Greater Minnesota's northern and Iron Range communities, where tight-knit small-town networks have repeatedly produced competitive vote totals despite smaller absolute populations.

Class structure and poll dynamics

MSHSL's six-class system means nominees often span a 5,000-to-150-student enrolment range in the same week's ballot. Class 6A athletes from suburban Twin Cities schools typically face the steepest competition because their opponents also have large, organised booster programmes. Class A athletes from rural sections can be competitive when their community rallies effectively — the Iron Range, in particular, has a well-documented culture of tight athletic community support that converts well in online polls.

How does voting for Minnesota Athlete of the Week work on si.com?

Each week, High School on SI publishes a new poll article at si.com/high-school/minnesota listing that week's nominees with their name, school, sport, and a brief performance note. The poll widget is embedded in the article and requires no account, subscription, or personal data to use. For a general explainer on how sports illustrated's prep-sports fan polls function across platforms, see our online contest voting guide.

There is no hourly or per-device vote cap on this poll. A fan can return to the same page and vote multiple times without any cooldown period — the platform relies entirely on the prohibition against automated tools rather than rate-limiting individual users. This design means that highly motivated individual supporters and well-organised booster networks can accumulate very large totals through persistent manual voting across the week.

The poll runs from the time it is published — typically early in the week — through Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. After close, the High School on SI editorial team announces the winner in a follow-up article, typically published Monday. Live vote totals are not always displayed continuously on the widget, but the competitive dynamic is the same as any fan-driven poll: total human clicks by close time decide the outcome.

How is the Minnesota High School Athlete of the Week winner chosen?

The winner is the nominee with the highest vote total when the poll closes Sunday at 11:59 p.m. PT — a pure fan vote with no editorial weighting or panel override after the ballot is set. The High School on SI Minnesota editorial team controls only the nomination stage.

1. Nomination: coaches, parents, and athletic contacts submit performances to [email protected] with "MNHSAW Nomination" in the subject line, typically covering weekend and early-week results across all MSHSL-sanctioned sports.
2. Ballot curation: the High School on SI Minnesota team selects nominees by editorial judgement; not every submitted performance earns a ballot spot. The shortlist is published as a poll article on si.com/high-school/minnesota, usually early in the week.
3. Open voting: the poll goes live and fans across Minnesota — and anywhere in the world — cast votes freely until Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.
4. Winner announced: after close, the athlete with the highest legitimate vote count is named Minnesota High School Athlete of the Week in a follow-up article published Monday on si.com/high-school/minnesota.

Because there is no prize beyond published recognition on one of the world's best-known sports media brands, the value of a win is reputational — a searchable, permanent byline on si.com that surfaces when college coaches, recruiters, and local media search an athlete's name.

What are the rules — and can you buy votes for this poll?

High School on SI's terms for the Minnesota Athlete of the Week are unusually direct: the poll "is intended to be fun" with no limits on how many times a human fan may vote, but "votes generated by script, macro or other automated means are not allowed, and athletes that receive votes generated by script, macro or other automated means will be disqualified." For a broader, balanced treatment of the legality question across online polls generally, see our full guide — the notes below are specific to this contest.

Two meaningfully different categories of activity exist:

• Automated scripts and macros — tools that submit votes programmatically at high speed without human interaction. These violate the stated terms and, per the official rules, result in the athlete being disqualified from that week's contest entirely.
• Paid outreach to real human voters — a service that routes the poll link to real people who manually cast votes within the platform's own rules. Structurally this is identical to a booster club email reaching a thousand additional alumni — it is fans voting, reached through a paid channel rather than a free one.

For families and boosters who want to grow vote totals within the rules, the most direct path is the same as any fan poll — share the direct article link across every authentic network, time the push before Sunday's 11:59 p.m. PT deadline, and encourage each contact to return and vote multiple times manually. See our how-to hub for specific mobilisation tactics that work within these rules.

How do you get more votes for a Minnesota High School Athlete of the Week nominee?

Because there is no hourly cap, the vote-building math here is purely about reach and persistence: the wider the network voting, and the more frequently each person returns to vote, the larger the total. The first step is always putting the exact si.com article link — not a general URL — in front of every realistic contact immediately after the poll publishes.

Two Minnesota-specific dynamics matter. First, the metro Class 6A schools — Eden Prairie, Edina, Wayzata, Maple Grove — have student bodies of 2,500 to 3,500 and professional-family suburban networks where social-media sharing is habitual. A single Instagram story from the athlete's account, shared at peak evening hours on a school night, can generate hundreds of unique visitors to the poll. Second, Greater Minnesota rural communities — especially Iron Range cities like Aurora (Mesabi East) and Hibbing — have a deep cultural tradition of rallying behind local athletes that rivals any metro booster programme in intensity per capita.

When legitimate outreach has been maximised and a nominee is still trailing, some campaigns use a paid vote promotion service that connects real human voters to the poll link. On this particular poll, given the explicit disqualification-for-scripts rule, choosing a service that guarantees manual human voting is non-negotiable. Our sports fan poll votes service is built for exactly that delivery model — paced, genuine, no automation.

When does the Minnesota High School Athlete of the Week vote run — MSHSL season timeline

The poll follows the three-season MSHSL sports calendar. Each season has its own nominee profile — the sports represented, the schools most active, and the typical vote-ceiling all shift from season to season and week to week.

Each individual poll runs from publication day — usually Monday or Tuesday — through Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. The specific article link changes every week; bookmark the standing hub at si.com/high-school/minnesota/athlete-of-the-week to find the current active poll without hunting.

Winter is often the most nationally visible season for Minnesota prep sports. Boys and girls hockey in particular draw national si.com audience interest far beyond the state, which means the weekly poll during hockey season can attract non-Minnesota voters who follow the sport — adding an extra layer of reach for nominees from storied programmes like Edina, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, and Wayzata.

For context on how this poll fits Minnesota's broader high school sports recognition landscape, see our Minnesota voting contests hub. For all US state contest guides, visit the USA contest directory.