Washington High School Athlete of the Week: How Voting Works & How to Win

Who runs the Washington High School Athlete of the Week poll?

The Washington High School Athlete of the Week is administered by High School on SI, the prep-sports digital brand of Sports Illustrated that absorbed the Seattle-area-founded SBLive Sports network. SBLive launched in the Pacific Northwest as a dedicated Washington and Oregon high school athletics platform before expanding nationally and merging into the Sports Illustrated ecosystem — the Washington edition retains deeper roots here than almost any other state in the High School on SI network.

• Votes are cast at si.com/high-school/washington/athlete-of-the-week — free, no account or registration required, open to anyone.
• Covers all WIAA-sanctioned sports seasons (fall, winter, spring) and all classifications from 4A to 1B across the full state.
• The editorial team nominates athletes based on outstanding weekly performances; fans then determine the winner through an open public vote.
• The vote cap is unlimited manual votes per person — the only rule is that automated scripts, macros, and bots are explicitly prohibited.
• Poll closes Sunday at 11:59 pm Pacific time; winner announced Monday on si.com and the @sblivewa social channels.
• Nominations are submitted by emailing [email protected] or tagging @sblivewa on social media with a performance summary.

Which Washington schools compete in this poll?

The Washington High School Athlete of the Week draws nominees from across all WIAA member schools — western Washington's King County and Pierce County powerhouses alongside Eastern Washington programmes in the Greater Spokane League, Big Nine, and Mid-Columbia Conference. The table below covers the schools and leagues most frequently represented on the weekly ballot.

Western Washington's dominant leagues — KingCo, SPSL, Metro, and the Greater St. Helens League — draw from the state's largest population centres and produce nominees in football, basketball, and soccer most heavily. Eastern Washington's Greater Spokane League (GSL) and Big Nine Conference field competitive programmes in football, basketball, and track that regularly challenge western Washington nominees for weekly honours. The poll's genuinely statewide scope — not a single-market newspaper contest — means a 2A school from Ferndale or Archbishop Murphy can appear on the same ballot as a Gonzaga Prep or Camas nominee.

Private schools with large alumni networks — Eastside Catholic, Kennedy Catholic, O'Dea, Archbishop Murphy — often perform disproportionately well in fan-vote formats because their graduate communities remain engaged long after leaving school. Eastside Catholic's Metro League placement alongside much larger public schools makes its weekly ballot appearances particularly competitive from a mobilisation standpoint. For a broader look at Washington state fan-vote contests, visit the Washington state contest hub.

How does Washington High School Athlete of the Week voting work?

Each week's poll is embedded in a standalone article at si.com/high-school/washington/athlete-of-the-week. The URL changes weekly as the High School on SI team publishes a new nominee article; the section landing page is the reliable hub to find the active poll each week. No subscription, account, email address, or personal information is required to vote — any visitor to the page can participate immediately.

What is the vote cap and how does it affect your strategy?

The Washington High School Athlete of the Week poll places no hourly restriction on manual voting. Each supporter can cast as many votes as they choose by returning to the poll page and clicking the vote button repeatedly throughout the week. The only absolute rule: automated scripts, macros, browser bots, and any mechanical means of generating votes are explicitly banned — athletes whose vote totals are flagged as automated are subject to disqualification.

This unlimited-manual-vote format produces winning totals that are substantially higher than in once-per-hour-capped contests. A school with 500 engaged community members each voting ten times across the full week generates 5,000 votes — a figure that a single-vote-per-hour format would require nearly an entire week of continuous automated activity to match. The competitive ceiling is therefore determined by how broadly and consistently a school's network engages across Sunday to Sunday.

The poll widget displays live running totals for all nominees throughout the open window. This real-time visibility creates natural momentum: supporters checking the leaderboard mid-week can see exactly how many votes separate their nominee from the leader and calibrate whether more outreach is needed. For context on how fan polls of this type work across the United States, see our guide to online contest voting.

When does Washington High School Athlete of the Week voting open and close?

The poll follows the WIAA sports calendar, running throughout fall, winter, and spring seasons. Each week's article and ballot typically go live Monday through Wednesday after the editorial team reviews weekend results; the poll then runs until Sunday at 11:59 pm Pacific time, with the winner announced Monday morning.

Fall is typically the most competitive voting season — particularly October weeks featuring KingCo and SPSL rivalry matchups and the GSHL showdowns between Camas and Union. Spring weeks, especially in track and lacrosse, often see smaller total vote counts because school booster networks are less fully mobilised. Always check the specific close time on the active poll article at si.com rather than assuming a fixed Sunday hour — holiday weeks and state-tournament scheduling can shift the publication window by one to two days.

How is the winner chosen and what does the athlete receive?

The winner is the nominee with the highest fan vote count at Sunday 11:59 pm — a straight popular vote with no editorial override, no scoring panel, and no mechanism that adjusts the outcome after the poll opens. The editorial gate exists only at the nomination stage.

1. Performance submission: coaches, parents, athletic directors, and school contacts nominate athletes by emailing [email protected] or tagging @sblivewa on social media with the athlete's name, school, sport, statistics, and game context — ideally including a coach quote and the significance of the performance within the WIAA season.
2. Ballot assembly: the High School on SI Washington editorial team selects nominees from submissions received, exercising judgement about statistical significance and newsworthiness for that specific week. Not every submission earns a ballot spot — a compelling, specific nomination improves the odds.
3. Open poll: the ballot goes live at si.com/high-school/washington/athlete-of-the-week with unlimited manual voting until Sunday 11:59 pm PT.
4. Announcement: the nominee with the most votes is named Washington High School Athlete of the Week on Monday — featured in a published article on si.com and promoted across High School on SI's @sblivewa social media accounts.

There is no cash prize or physical award. The value is a published, third-party citation on a Sports Illustrated–branded platform — a recognisable, searchable credential that appears when a college recruiter searches the athlete's name and that carries more weight than self-reported statistics on a recruiting profile. For athletes at Washington schools where statewide visibility is limited — mid-size or rural programmes outside the Seattle metro — the credential can meaningfully expand exposure to coaches following Pacific Northwest prep sports.

How do you get more votes for Washington High School Athlete of the Week?

Because the Washington poll has no hourly cap, the total a community can produce across five to seven days scales with how broadly the direct poll link is distributed and how consistently supporters return to vote. Start with the link — copy the exact URL of the week's si.com poll article the moment it goes live — and push it through every realistic channel as early in the week as possible. For campaigns where organic outreach has reached its ceiling and the gap to the leader is still large, our sports fan poll votes service delivers real, manually cast votes paced to stay within the contest's rules.

What works best in the Washington market?

Washington's geography creates distinct community pockets with different mobilisation dynamics. The Puget Sound metro — King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties — is digitally native: Instagram, Facebook neighbourhood groups, and Nextdoor convert well because parents in suburban communities check them daily. Eastern Washington's GSL and Big Nine communities are tighter-knit and respond strongly to direct outreach through local Facebook groups and school athletic newsletters, which often reach family networks that don't follow the athlete on social media.

Catholic and private-school alumni networks — Eastside Catholic, Kennedy Catholic, O'Dea, Archbishop Murphy — are unusually active in fan-vote campaigns because graduates remain engaged long after leaving school. An Eastside Catholic WhatsApp thread reaching two hundred recent alumni can generate hundreds of votes within hours of the poll opening.

The unlimited-vote format means that a Washington school whose booster community genuinely engages across the full week — Monday through Sunday — can generate totals that are an order of magnitude larger than a last-minute single-push effort. Consistent, multi-day mobilisation beats any single campaign spike. See our voting contest how-to guides for detailed playbooks applicable to unlimited-vote formats like this one.

Rules and the buy-votes question for Washington High School Athlete of the Week

The Washington High School Athlete of the Week is a consumer fan-engagement poll on a sports media website — not a regulated sweepstakes, not a Washington State prize promotion subject to RCW Chapter 9.46, and not a cash contest. There is no entry fee, no cash prize, and no legal restriction under Washington law on participating in a free reader poll of this type.

The relevant practical distinction is between two structurally different categories:

• Automated scripts and bots — programmatic clicks that simulate votes without a human behind each one. These are explicitly prohibited by High School on SI and produce traffic patterns that differ detectably from genuine multi-device household voting.
• Paid outreach to real voters — real people navigating to the poll and clicking the vote button manually on their own devices. Structurally this is identical to a school booster club sharing the link with a large parent email list — it is fans voting, reached through a different channel.

Whether that distinction satisfies the spirit of High School on SI's specific contest terms is a judgement each entrant must make after reading the current official poll article. In a fan poll with no cash prize and no Washington State prize-promotion law framework, the risk is reputational rather than legal — athletes, families, and booster clubs should weigh that honestly against the credential value of a statewide Sports Illustrated–backed win.

What is the practical consequence if votes are flagged?

Disqualification applies to the specific week's vote count. Because voting requires no account, there is no account to suspend. Future nominations are unaffected. For a broader, market-neutral look at online poll vote promotion across the United States, see the full US contest guide index.