West Virginia WTRF Elite Roofing Elite Player of the Week: How Voting Works & How to Win

The part most voters miss, this ballot doesn't stop at the state line

Here's the thing nobody searching "WTRF player of the week vote" expects: the ballot isn't West Virginia-only. WTRF 7 broadcasts out of Wheeling, and its signal footprint runs both sides of the Ohio River. So the Gold and Blue Nation sports desk builds its weekly "Elite Roofing Elite Player of the Week" ballot from Northern Panhandle programs in West Virginia AND Ohio Valley programs across the river in Ohio. A Wheeling Park or Wheeling Central Catholic nominee isn't just up against Cameron or John Marshall. Some weeks, a Martins Ferry or Steubenville nominee from the Ohio side lands on the same ballot.

That's unusual. Most station-run weekly polls stay inside one state's classification system. WTRF's doesn't, because its market never did. Elite Roofing sponsors the recognition; WTRF's newsroom picks who gets nominated, and the vote itself runs free and open at wtrf.com, no account needed. Nobody logs in, nobody pays. General mechanics for this kind of fan-vote push (whether it's this ballot or a different one) are covered in the online voting guide.

What's actually confirmed about the nominee pool (and what isn't)

WTRF's coverage area, per its own market description, includes Wheeling Park, Wheeling Central Catholic, Cameron, Oak Glen, Brooke, Weir, John Marshall, and Linsly on the West Virginia side. Union Local, Martins Ferry, and Steubenville represent the Ohio Valley side. That's the footprint, not a guaranteed nominee list. WTRF doesn't publish an archive of past winners or vote totals on its site, so there's no running tally to point to here, and it would be dishonest to invent one.

What is confirmed: this is a separate program from WTRF's own general "Athlete of the Week" and "Team of the Week" vote, which covers multiple sports across the same market. The Elite Roofing ballot is football-only, runs during the WVSSAC season, and the two programs operate in parallel rather than sharing a single vote. Fall-sport fans tracking the broader program should see the West Virginia Athlete of the Week page instead.

How the vote actually works, and where this platform differs from the SI standard

Go to wtrf.com, find the current week's Gold and Blue Nation post (it's worth checking the publish date, since old weeks' posts can stay live after the window closes), read the nominees, and vote. No login screen, no CAPTCHA gate mentioned by the station, nothing to download. That's simpler than the High School on SI format used statewide, which nominates 10 to 11 players across all four WVSSAC classifications on one ballot that closes Sunday night.

Two other things worth knowing. First: WOWK and WSAZ, which cover Charleston and Huntington, run their own completely separate weekly polls, same idea, different market, no shared nominee pool. Second: a Northern Panhandle player having a big week could plausibly show up on both the WTRF market ballot and the statewide SI ballot simultaneously, since the two organisations nominate independently of each other. Checking both wtrf.com and si.com/high-school/west-virginia is the only way to know for sure which ballots a given performance landed on. Readers weighing whether outside vote support is even worth it on a free, uncapped poll like this one can start with is buying votes legal and is buying votes safe.

What campaign scale looks like when there's no public vote history

WTRF doesn't publish raw vote counts, so anyone claiming to know "how many votes it takes to win" this particular poll is guessing. What can be said honestly: turnout on a station-market poll this size tends to track the size of the school community behind a nominee, not the size of the school itself. A smaller program with an organized parent or booster group texting the link around beats a bigger school where nobody bothers.

The Ohio-side wrinkle matters here too. If a Martins Ferry or Steubenville nominee is on the ballot, that's a program with its own separate fan base pulling for a completely different outcome than the West Virginia side wants, worth knowing before assuming the whole ballot is a WV-only contest. For the full West Virginia lineup of weekly fan polls, see the state hub; the statewide football poll is covered separately at the High School on SI page, and the spring-season equivalent is the Softball Player of the Week program. Anyone comparing turnout mechanics across other states' fan-driven sports ballots can browse the fan poll hub, the how to get votes for an online contest guide, or the national state-by-state directory.