Mississippi High School Player of the Year: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Mississippi High School Player of the Year award?

The Mississippi High School Player of the Year is an annual fan-vote recognition contest run by High School on SI — the SBLive-powered prep sports platform within Sports Illustrated — at si.com/high-school/mississippi. Unlike the weekly Athlete of the Week poll, this award is sport-specific and season-culminating: a single annual vote determines the top prep performer in Mississippi football (held after the MHSAA playoffs in November–December) and in baseball (held after the state tournament in June).

• Operated by SBLive / High School on SI, a national prep sports network integrated into Sports Illustrated's digital platform since the early 2020s.
• Covers athletes from all MHSAA classifications — 1A through 7A — with nominees drawn from schools across all 82 Mississippi counties.
• Voting is free and open to any reader at si.com/high-school/mississippi; no Sports Illustrated subscription or SBLive account is required.
• Polls are distinct by sport: a football Player of the Year vote runs each December, a baseball Player of the Year vote runs each June, and additional sport-specific polls may be added seasonally.
• The MHSAA Mr. Football editorial award (coached-panel) runs in parallel but separately — the SBLive/SI Player of the Year is the public fan-vote version, open to anyone in the state.
• Mississippi search interest for prep Player of the Year content peaks in December (football) and June (baseball), aligning with the close of each season's championship.

A Player of the Year win from a statewide platform reaches college coaches, scouts, and recruiting databases in a way that weekly recognitions rarely do — the searchability of a named si.com feature is its primary value to Mississippi prep athletes and their families.

Recent Mississippi Player of the Year contenders and Mr. Football honorees

The SBLive / High School on SI fan-vote poll nominates top performers from across the state each December (football) and June (baseball). In parallel, the MHSAA and Mississippi Association of Coaches announce their editorial Mr. Football winners — a coach-panel selection with one honoree per classification, presented by C Spire. The table below combines both programmes to show who Mississippi's top annual prep honorees have been.

Recent Mississippi POY winners and Mr. Football honorees

Tupelo's Jaeden Hill was both a 2024 Mr. Football 7A honoree and an SBLive Mississippi football POY nominee — he entered the season as a Mississippi State commit and posted standout dual-threat numbers. Sebastopol's Adarius McDougle made MHSAA history as the state's only back-to-back Mr. Football winner (2A, 2023 and 2024), a rare repeat that drove unusually high fan-vote engagement in both December cycles.

Mississippi baseball POY nominees — 2025 season

The 2025 baseball POY poll on High School on SI drew 18 nominated players statewide, with voting set to close July 6 at 11:59 p.m. PT — a multi-week window that gave school communities ample time to organise their networks. The 2024 edition ran a similar format with a June deadline. Both cycles are anchored at si.com/high-school/mississippi.

How does the Mississippi Player of the Year fan vote work?

The High School on SI Mississippi Player of the Year poll operates as a standard free online fan vote at si.com/high-school/mississippi. SBLive's editorial team selects the nominee list based on the season's standout performers; once the ballot goes live, any reader — in Mississippi or elsewhere — can vote for any nominee without creating an account, paying, or providing personal details.

Annual POY polls run on a longer window than the weekly format — typically two to four weeks — which creates a very different mobilisation dynamic. For an overview of how fan-vote poll mechanics generally function across newspaper and media-platform polls, see our complete online contest voting guide; the Mississippi POY notes below cover this specific event's annual cadence.

There is no stated per-hour or per-day vote cap explicitly documented on the current SBLive/SI poll format — the platform uses standard browser-session tracking. This means the window length is more relevant than an hourly reset, and coordinated community mobilisation spread across the full multi-week period consistently outperforms last-minute pushes.

Voting works on all standard desktop and mobile browsers. The poll widget renders on the si.com page without requiring a Sports Illustrated subscription. Supporters outside Mississippi — family in other states, alumni following a programme from afar — can vote at the same si.com URL as local readers.

How is the Mississippi POY winner decided — and what does a win mean?

The winner of the High School on SI Mississippi Player of the Year fan vote is determined entirely by vote total: whichever nominated athlete accumulates the most votes when the poll closes is named the winner. There is no panel adjustment, no secondary scoring round, and no editorial override of the fan result.

This is distinct from the MHSAA / Mississippi Association of Coaches Mr. Football award, which is selected by a panel of coaches and media members. That editorial award names one winner per classification (1A through 7A) and is not affected by fan voting. The two programmes recognise different dimensions of the same season:

• MHSAA / MAC Mr. Football — editorial selection; coach-media panel; one per classification; presented by C Spire; carries MHSAA institutional weight.
• High School on SI Mississippi POY fan vote — open public ballot; single statewide winner per sport per season; winner determined by fan vote total; published on si.com and SBLive Mississippi coverage.

A win in the fan-vote version produces a searchable si.com article naming the athlete as Mississippi's top player for that sport and season — a credential that appears in Google results when coaches, scouts, or admissions contacts search the athlete's name. For programmes without strong regional media coverage, a statewide POY win through a platform with Sports Illustrated's domain authority can carry recruiting significance disproportionate to what a locally-published win would generate.

Coby King of Greene County set the MHSAA single-season touchdown record with 49 touchdowns in 2024 — his recognition via both the Mr. Football 4A award and the SBLive POY ballot reached a national prep audience through the SI network that no local outlet alone could have matched.

Ways to get more votes in the Mississippi Player of the Year contest

Annual POY votes differ from weekly polls in one critical way: the extended window rewards sustained community mobilisation over a multi-week period rather than a single 48-hour push. The athletes who win statewide fan votes in Mississippi have consistently been those whose networks engaged repeatedly throughout the voting period — not just in the final hours. For a full framework on vote-campaign strategy for online polls, see our how-to guides and the buy-votes-online guide.

A pattern distinctive to Mississippi's small-classification schools: Class 1A and 2A programmes — Velma Jackson, Sebastopol, Bay Springs — have won state fan votes despite smaller absolute enrollment because their community density is extraordinary. A single WhatsApp chain or church-bulletin mention in a small Mississippi Delta or Piney Woods town can reach a higher percentage of engaged supporters than a mass email from a 2,000-student suburban school.

When organic outreach has been exhausted and the vote remains competitive, some entrants use a paid vote promotion service to extend their reach to additional real voters. If you consider this route, choose a service that delivers paced, genuine votes — our sports fan poll votes service is designed around this delivery model, matching the platform's session patterns.

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

The High School on SI Mississippi Player of the Year vote is an open reader-engagement poll with no cash prize and no formal Mississippi prize-promotion law framework. The relevant constraints are SBLive's platform terms, which — in line with standard media poll practice — prohibit automated scripts and bot-driven traffic that fabricate votes outside the normal browsing session model. For a thorough, balanced breakdown of legality across online polls nationwide, see our full guide; the points below apply to this specific poll.

• Automated scripts / bots: tools that fire rapid, automated requests outside a normal browser session bypass session tracking and violate standard platform terms. They produce detectable traffic signatures and result in vote removal.
• Real-voter paid outreach: real people browsing to si.com, loading the poll, and submitting a vote through the standard widget are voting within the platform's intended model — structurally no different from a booster email reaching 500 families. Whether this satisfies the spirit of any particular contest terms is a judgement each entrant must make.

Because the SBLive Mississippi POY carries no prize and no formal sweepstakes structure, it sits in a lower-risk category than prize-bearing contests — but families and boosters should still evaluate reputational considerations before deciding how aggressively to pursue a win.

Mississippi Player of the Year — season timeline and voting calendar

The High School on SI Mississippi POY vote follows the MHSAA sports calendar, with the two major annual polls timed to each sport's championship conclusion. The table below maps the POY cycle to real Mississippi prep season milestones.

The football and baseball POY cycles are the two established annual voter events confirmed on High School on SI's Mississippi platform. SBLive also runs sport-specific quarterly recognition (QB of the Year, etc.) on a less fixed schedule. For the current active poll, visit si.com/high-school/mississippi directly — the ballot appears in the news feed when voting is live.

For the broader Mississippi high school sports voting landscape — including the weekly Athlete of the Week format — see the Mississippi contest hub. For all US prep voting contests by state, visit the USA guide index.