The Times Recorder Preseason Offensive Athlete of the Year: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Times Recorder Preseason Offensive Athlete of the Year is

The Times Recorder Preseason Offensive Athlete of the Year is a preseason poll on high school football, published by the Times Recorder, an Ohio newspaper whose masthead appears in full as The Times-Reporter and whose home on the web is zanesvilletimesrecorder.com. Crowdsignal at poll.fm hosts the vote, and the live ballot for this edition sits at poll.fm 15916683. It is a preseason award: the question goes to readers before the season starts, asking which offensive player deserves the newspaper's tag.

The contrast with its neighbours is the clearest way to place it. Papers across Ohio run athlete of the week ballots that reset every seven days through the fall, such as the Columbus Dispatch Athlete of the Week or the Cincinnati Enquirer Athlete of the Week. This Times Recorder ballot does the opposite. It asks one offensive-only question, once, in August, and the field is set entirely of high school players. Because the nominees are minors, this reference describes the field by position and class rather than by name; the full candidate list, with positions, schools and 2024 statistics, sits on the live ballot.

The dated history of the Times Recorder preseason offensive vote

Confirmed editions of this poll ran in 2024 and 2025, and the 2026 edition is live now. The publisher's own announcement of the current ballot states the window plainly: voting opens Aug. 3 and runs until Aug. 10 at Noon. That one-week August span is the whole competitive season for this award, which is what separates it from a weekly series that accumulates results across an entire fall.

The 2026 ballot carries the newspaper's preseason offensive question with a candidate list built from 2024 statistics, the same shape the 2024 and 2025 editions followed. What the publisher has not printed anywhere is a category list beyond the single offensive field, a per-supporter vote cap, a daily return rule or an eligibility statement; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Two gaps follow from that. First, no nomination phase is described for this poll, so supporters should treat the published candidate list as final when the window opens on Aug. 3. Second, the publisher has not stated whether the window shifts in future summers, so the Aug. 3 to Aug. 10 at Noon span should be re-checked against the live ballot each time a new edition appears rather than assumed from the 2026 dates.

How a supporter votes in the Times Recorder offensive poll today

The mechanic is deliberately simple, and every step happens on the Crowdsignal page at poll.fm 15916683. A supporter lands there, reads the question, who is the Times Recorder preseason Offensive Athlete of the Year, and scans the candidate list. Each option names an offensive high school football player with a position, a school and a line of 2024 production, so the choice is between quarterbacks, running backs, receivers and all-purpose candidates rather than between categories.

Voting is a single action: select the radio button beside one candidate and press the vote control at the foot of the ballot. The poll.fm page then displays the running tally for the Times Recorder question, so a supporter can see where the chosen player stands before the Aug. 10 at Noon close. No account creation, nomination form or second round is described anywhere on the ballot.

The one mechanic the ballot leaves unstated is repetition. The page prints no rule on how often a supporter may return during the Aug. 3 to Aug. 10 at Noon window, and no login exists that would enforce one. Anyone curious about repeat visits should simply try a return trip and see whether the Times Recorder's ballot accepts it, since the publisher's own live page is the sole authority on that behaviour.

How this ballot sits beside its Ohio siblings

Ohio readers meet a crowded field of publisher-run sports polls, and this one differs from all of them on timing and scope. The Akron-Area High School Athlete of the Week, the Dayton Daily News High School Athlete of the Week and the Dayton High School Football Player of the Week are weekly series that refresh during the season. The Fox 8 FNTD Player of the Year Vote is a television station's year-end format. The Times Recorder ballot is none of these: it is a preseason, offensive-only, single-window award from a newspaper.

That difference changes how support works. In a weekly series, a slow first day costs little because the next ballot arrives in seven days. In this poll, the entire Aug. 3 to Aug. 10 at Noon span is the opportunity, and a candidate who trails after the opening days has no later round to fall back on. The offensive-only framing also narrows the electorate to football followers of the Times Recorder's coverage area, rather than the general sports audience a statewide ballot such as the Columbus Dispatch's attracts.

For a supporter deciding where effort pays, the practical difference is concentration. One question, one week, one newspaper's readership: every vote cast on the poll.fm ballot moves a single number, and no other Ohio sibling on this site shares that ballot or its result.

Strengthening support inside a one-week preseason poll

A short window changes the playbook. Because the Times Recorder offensive poll runs only from Aug. 3 to Aug. 10 at Noon, a candidate's supporters need to mobilise at the opening bell, not in the final hours. The mechanic rewards early, broad outreach: share the poll.fm 15916683 address directly with the player's school community, teammates' families and local football groups, and ask each person to cast a ballot the same day they see the request.

The publisher prints no rule about outside voting help on this ballot, and no statement about paid votes or software appears on the poll.fm page either. That silence is an absence rather than permission, and the organizer retains whatever enforcement it chooses. Anyone weighing purchased support for a high school poll should read the legality and rules overview at is buying votes legal and the tactics guide at how to get more votes online before acting, since both explain what organizers can do when a result looks manipulated.

The safest strong push in this format is the one the ballot was built for: genuine supporters, voting early, returning if the ballot allows it, and recruiting others before the Noon close on Aug. 10.