Who is the Reader's Choice boys lacrosse player of the year, presented by White Plains Hospital: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Reader's Choice boys lacrosse player of the year vote is

This program is a fan-voted award that asks a single question: who is the Reader's Choice boys lacrosse player of the year, presented by White Plains Hospital? The organizer is the Reader, a New York publisher, and the presenting sponsor in the program's name is White Plains Hospital. The ballot is a public-vote contest in the sport vertical, meaning the winner is decided entirely by whoever casts votes on the poll page rather than by a panel of judges.

The vote is hosted on Crowdsignal through its poll.fm service. The ballot address is https://poll.fm/17168416, and that page is the program's live voting location. The 2026 poll is titled with a closed status, so a visitor arriving today sees the completed ballot and its results rather than an open vote.

The nominees on the 2026 ballot are high school players from New York programs, each listed beside his school. Schools appearing on the ballot include Tappan Zee, Somers, Yorktown, Clarkstown South, John Jay-Cross River and Iona Prep, a mix that points to a lower Hudson Valley and Westchester-area field of nominees. The award sits in the same family as the publisher-backed athlete votes that run across New York high school sports.

The dated record behind this lacrosse award

This award has two confirmed runs on file, 2022 and 2026. That pair is the basis for treating it as an annual program rather than a single-run poll. The 2026 ballot is the edition the current voting URL points to, and its page carries a closed marker, meaning the voting window for that year has ended and the results are final as displayed.

The 2026 window fell in June. That month is the only timing detail the ballot evidence carries: no opening day, no closing day and no nomination period are printed anywhere on the poll page. The publisher also has not published the list of ballot categories beyond the one player of the year question, nor any rule on how frequently a single backer may vote again or who is eligible to take part; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

For a supporter trying to plan around the next edition, the practical picture is this: the program has run at least twice, the most recent confirmed run was June 2026, and nothing on the ballot page announces when the publisher will open the following poll. Because the award is tied to the high school lacrosse season, a new ballot would logically follow a spring season, but the schedule itself is the publisher's to announce and has not been announced here.

One more dated note matters for anyone reading older coverage: the 2022 edition is confirmed from the program's own history, so references to a Reader's Choice lacrosse vote from that year describe the same program, not a separate award. Any claim about editions in years other than 2022 and 2026 has no support on the ballot page.

How a supporter votes on the poll.fm ballot

Acting on this ballot takes three moves. A supporter loads the page at poll.fm/17168416, where the poll presents its question and the full list of nominated players. Each nominee appears with the school he represents, so a voter scanning for a Tappan Zee, Somers, Yorktown, Clarkstown South, John Jay-Cross River or Iona Prep player can find him directly on the list. The voter picks the nominee's selection circle and submits, and Crowdsignal returns the running tally after the choice is saved.

There is no bracket, no nomination round and no separate category page to work through. The entire vote is one question on one page, which makes it among the simplest ballots a supporter can act on: arrive, choose, submit. Because the poll displays results after voting, supporters checking on a nominee's standing can see the outcome of each push immediately.

What the ballot page leaves out is the rule set around the vote. Nothing on the page states whether a supporter may return to vote again, whether votes from outside the school communities are weighed differently, or whether the publisher screens for irregular activity. Those are the details a campaign would want before organizing support at scale, and the honest position is that the publisher has not printed them. Reading the live ballot at the moment you plan to vote is the only way to know what rules apply to the current cycle.

For a closed poll like the 2026 edition, the same page still serves a purpose: it preserves the final results and the nominee list, which is useful context for the next run.

How this ballot sits beside New York's other fan votes

New York carries a dense set of publisher-run high school sports votes, and this lacrosse award is one of them. Its closest neighbours on this site include the lohud Boys Basketball Player of the Week and the Lohud Girls Basketball Player of the Week, both of which follow the same pattern of a regional publisher asking readers to pick a standout athlete.

Further afield in the state, the Buffalo News Prep Talk Girls Athlete of the Week runs the same fan-vote format under a different publisher, while the Hudson Valley New York High School Football Player of the Week covers the same geographic region as this lacrosse ballot but a different sport. Statewide football votes round out the set: the New York High School Football Player of the Week and the New York Section 1 High School Football Player of the Week.

What distinguishes this program from those neighbours is its cadence and scope. The weekly athlete votes reset every few days during a season, while this lacrosse award is a once-per-season player of the year question with a nominee field drawn from across multiple schools. It is also the only one of the group carrying a hospital system as its presenting sponsor, which shapes how the program presents itself: a community health partner lending its name to a scholastic award rather than a media brand alone.

Strengthening support for a nominee on this ballot

Because this ballot is one question on a Crowdsignal page, support for a nominee comes down to turning out voters to that single address during the open window. The 2026 edition is closed, so any push now is preparation for the next cycle rather than action on a live vote. When a new ballot opens, the schools with the most organized communities, the Tappan Zee, Somers, Yorktown, Clarkstown South, John Jay-Cross River and Iona Prep camps among this year's field, tend to be the ones that can move a tally quickly.

The publisher has not printed any statement about outside help, vote purchasing or automation for this award, which means no published rule either permits or bans it. That silence cuts both ways: a supporter cannot point to an allowance, and the organizer has reserved whatever enforcement position it chooses. The cautious reading is that the ballot's integrity is the publisher's call, and the live page is where any such policy would appear.

For a grounded look at what actually moves numbers on polls like this, from reminder timing to community mobilization, the site's votes guide covers the mechanics without promising outcomes. No vote service, this site's included, can promise a win in a fan vote whose rules the organizer keeps off the page.