StarNews End-of-Season Boys Basketball Player of the Year: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the StarNews boys basketball Player of the Year poll and who runs it?

The StarNews End-of-Season Boys Basketball Player of the Year Poll is run by StarNews End-of-Season for North Carolina high school boys basketball. The ballot sits on Crowdsignal, a poll host that uses the poll.fm address, and it asks supporters to choose the season's standout boys basketball player from a nominee list.

The nominees come from high school programs across North Carolina. Schools named in the poll options include New Hanover, Hoggard, North Brunswick, Laney and West Brunswick, which shows the spread of programs the ballot draws from. The poll is a sport vertical ballot, not a business or award vote, so a reader should judge it by its season and publisher rather than by any single nominee.

The wider state index lists the other sport and award ballots in the United States, including the North Carolina entries that sit beside this one.

When did the StarNews boys basketball poll run and what is still open?

Editions for 2022, 2025 and 2026 are confirmed. The 2026 ballot is dated to March from its poll identifier, and the poll title on the current ballot reads closed. Those are the only dated windows in the material, so the year-by-year timing rests on the titles of each poll rather than on a single calendar.

The 2022 and 2025 editions are dated only to their years in the material, not to a month, so a reader planning around the calendar should treat March as the one confirmed month. No closing day beyond the printed poll title is stated, and no edition after 2026 is confirmed. Confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

A voter who lands on the poll page should read the title first, since the status it shows is the only current word on whether a vote can still be cast.

How does a fan cast a vote for a nominee in this poll?

A fan opens the poll at the Crowdsignal address, reads the title for the status of the current ballot, and picks the nominee the fan wants to back. The vote is public, and each submitted vote adds to the nominee's total. The tally, not a panel, is the mechanism StarNews End-of-Season uses to decide the result.

Because the nominees are high school players, a fan should choose by the poll's own nominee list rather than by a school's social media post, since the same program can appear with several nominees across a season. The ballot only counts what is submitted on its own page.

The poll names the schools the nominees attend in its option list, which is the quickest way to confirm which school a nominee represents before voting.

How does this North Carolina poll compare with other athlete polls in the state?

Several sibling programs in North Carolina run their own athlete polls. Charlotte Observer Athlete of the Week covers a weekly series, Charlotte Observer Girls High School Athlete of the Week covers girls players, and Fans' Choice 910Preps Boys' Athlete of the Year is a separate boys award. Each has its own ballot, so a vote in one does not count in another.

This StarNews poll is a season-end award for boys basketball, so it differs from the weekly series by its season and format. Readers comparing the group should check each poll's own title, because the status and timing wording are set by each organizer.

The scholar athlete series and the Charlotte Observer boys series both run weekly, so they share a format with each other but not a season or ballot with the StarNews season-end poll.

How can a North Carolina nominee build support in a public fan poll?

Support begins with the poll itself. Because the StarNews ballot is a public fan tally, a nominee gains ground by reaching families, coaches and classmates who already follow the player, and asking them to submit a vote on the poll address. A request that names the poll title and the status of the ballot is clearer than a general plea for support.

The poll wording gives no detail on outside help, so a family or school should keep its outreach to honest requests and read the poll title before sharing the link. For broader steps that work on any public poll, see the guide to getting more votes online, which covers approaches that carry over to a fan poll like this one.