Wilmington StarNews Anderson Air StarNews Athlete of the Week: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Athlete of the Week poll and who runs it?

The Wilmington StarNews Anderson Air StarNews Athlete of the Week is a public weekly poll for high school athletes in the Wilmington area. The Wilmington StarNews runs the series, and readers vote each week for the athlete they want to recognize.

Readers who follow the series should bookmark the poll address, since the linked ballot is the most recent one in the weekly run. The poll is hosted on Crowdsignal, which is also known as poll.fm. Each weekly ballot has its own page, and the most recent ballot is the one linked from this guide. The series is a single program, even though each week is a separate ballot with its own nominee list.

Because the poll is weekly, a reader who wants a given week's result has to open that week's ballot, not the series page. The nominee field on each ballot names local high school athletes, so the poll follows the regional sports season.

What dates and editions does the weekly series cover?

The series is listed for 2024 and 2025, with weekly in-season ballots. The season appears from October on the StarNews series, and the linked ballot covers the Dec. 23-29 week, which is marked closed on the poll page.

Each week carries its own window, so the most recent closed ballot is the best guide to how the series ended its season. A reader comparing 2024 with 2025 should treat them as two separate runs of the same weekly format.

A supporter who follows the series across a season will see the nominee field change from week to week, so each ballot should be read on its own terms rather than as a continuing contest.

How does a fan vote in a weekly ballot today?

A fan opens the latest Anderson Air StarNews ballot on the Crowdsignal page, reads the nominees for that week, and submits a vote for the athlete they back. The poll is public, and the page shows the leading percentages once a ballot closes.

The closed Dec. 23-29 ballot shows one leading entry at 68% of votes, which equals 6,071 votes in that week. That share belongs to this ballot alone and should not be taken as the share any other week will reach, since each week draws its own field.

Repeat voting is not addressed on the ballot itself, so a fan should read the poll's posted rules before casting a second vote. Bots and voting software fall under those rules, and the poll's organizer decides what happens to votes it rejects.

How does this poll sit beside other North Carolina athlete polls?

The Wilmington series sits beside several North Carolina athlete and player polls. Its format is a weekly high school poll on Crowdsignal, so it differs from the Charlotte Observer's athlete-of-the-week ballots and the Greensboro player poll.

The Charlotte Observer runs separate boys and girls ballots, while this Wilmington series is one ballot per week. Unlike the year-end and scholar polls, this series runs week by week, so the same athlete can be nominated more than once in a season. A reader who wants a season-long view should follow the weekly ballots in order.

How can a school community build support for a weekly ballot?

Support for a weekly ballot usually comes from the people closest to the nominee. Family, teammates and the wider school community can see the ballot and share it, and each share should follow the poll's rules.

Paid vote services exist, and the buy votes online overview covers the general market. A paid service, ours included, cannot promise a result in a public weekly poll, and a purchase should be checked against the poll's rules and the legality overview before any money changes hands.

Supporters who want a broader plan can follow the guide to getting more votes online, which lists steps that apply to any public poll. Those steps are general, and the poll's own rules decide which of them are allowed on a given week's ballot. Acting early in the week's window gives a supporter more time to share the ballot before it closes.

A school community that wants to back a nominee more than once in a season can do so only where the poll allows it, so the rules on each weekly page are the final word on repeat votes.