WNC Girls Athlete of the Week (Asheville Citizen Times): How Voting Works & How to Win

What the WNC girls winter poll is and who runs it

The WNC Girls Athlete of the Week poll for winter sports is a weekly public ballot. Asheville Citizen Times, WNC publishes it, and the balloting runs through the poll.fm service operated by Crowdsignal. The ballot covers girls athletes in winter sports, and the newspaper's name in the title ties the poll to the Asheville market.

Within the North Carolina sports listings, the series belongs to the weekly athlete-of-the-week group. It is one programme with a single voting address, even though each week's ballot is a separate poll. That matters for a reader who wants the newest ballot rather than an earlier week.

Which winter seasons are confirmed and how the weeks run

The winter series is confirmed for two seasons, 2024 and 2025. Voting in each season runs in weekly ballots from December into February. The linked poll is labelled Week 5 on the platform, which places it inside the season's run rather than at its start or end.

The first and last ballots of each season are not listed on the poll page, so the full run cannot be reconstructed from it. Dates for the next ballot have not been printed; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Because the linked poll sits in the middle of the run, a reader who wants the opening week or the final week will need to look for those ballots separately. The Week 5 address is the newest ballot available to link here, and it should be treated as a starting point rather than a complete listing of the series. Readers who need the full run should check the newspaper's own listings each week.

How a supporter votes in a weekly winter ballot today

Each week, a supporter opens the current Crowdsignal poll, reads the athlete options it lists, and selects one. The selection is added to that week's count, and once the week's ballot closes, the platform labels the poll as closed.

The poll gives no per-person limit or daily allowance, so how many times a supporter can select an option is not confirmed. A closed week keeps its own tally, and the next week's ballot begins a separate count.

How this poll sits beside the other sports polls

The North Carolina sports listings include several athlete-of-the-week and player-of-the-year ballots. The Charlotte Observer Athlete of the Week and the boys and girls high school lists from the same publisher cover the Charlotte market, while this poll is tied to Asheville. The Greensboro News & Record Player of the Week covers yet another market.

Two other programs are worth comparing on the same state page. The Tatum & Atkinson Scholar Athlete of the Week is a scholar award, and the Fans' Choice 910Preps Boys' Athlete of the Year is a boys award. This girls winter poll is neither of those.

Why paid votes do not fit a youth athlete ballot

The nominees on this poll are high school students, and the ballot asks supporters to pick one of them each week. A poll of that kind is meant to show how many people actually back an athlete. Paying for votes changes that count, and it does so for one student at the expense of others who did not pay.

Paid vote sellers are a real part of the public polling market, so it is fair to ask the question. The newspaper's text does not mention paid votes, and no recommendation to buy them appears here. A family that wants to show support is better served by sharing the ballot with people who follow the athlete.

Before weighing any outside help, review the legal overview. Whether a purchase is permitted depends on the rules of the organizer and the platform, and no seller can promise a result on a student poll.

The same concern applies to every weekly ballot in the series, because each week's count is a fresh test of which athlete the public backs. A distorted week would mislead readers about the season as a whole, which is one more reason to keep the ballot a plain public vote.