Connecticut High School Player of the Year: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Connecticut High School Player of the Year on High School on SI?

High School on SI's Connecticut Player of the Year is a statewide annual fan-vote that determines the top prep athlete in Connecticut by sport — the 2024 football edition drew 22,288 votes and was won by Windsor quarterback John Manning. The contest is administered by High School on SI, Sports Illustrated's dedicated prep-sports vertical built on the SBLive regional sports network. It lives at si.com/high-school/connecticut, a page covering all CIAC-sanctioned sports year-round.

• Organised by High School on SI / SBLive Sports — Sports Illustrated's prep platform, with state-by-state editorial coverage across the US.
• Covers all major CIAC sports: football, basketball (boys and girls), baseball, softball, soccer, and more — each sport gets its own season-end POY ballot.
• Voting is free and requires no account or login; any fan in Connecticut or elsewhere can cast a vote.
• The 2024 football winner, Windsor's John Manning, completed 170 of 282 passes for 2,556 yards and 32 touchdowns with only 3 interceptions, adding 202 rushing yards and 6 TDs — 38 total touchdowns on the year.
• Voting for fall sports typically closes December 31 of the season year.
• Unlike the weekly WFSB Athlete of the Week (a TV-driven weekly poll), the SI POY is an annual, season-end award recognising the single outstanding performer across an entire CIAC season.

Which Connecticut schools and conferences compete for the Player of the Year?

Every CIAC member school across all four conferences — CCC, SCC, SWC, and FCIAC — is eligible for nomination. The ballot typically features 5–8 finalists selected by the SI/SBLive Connecticut sports desk from the state's strongest statistical performers of the season. The table below shows schools that have produced strong POY nominees or contenders, mapped by conference and region.

The CCC dominates fall football nominations: Hartford County programmes like Windsor, Southington, and Glastonbury consistently produce statistically elite quarterbacks and skill players. The FCIAC, covering densely populated Fairfield County towns including Greenwich and Westport, brings a large suburban social-media footprint that translates into competitive vote totals. The SCC provides strong mid-state representation from New Haven and Middlesex counties.

How does the High School on SI Connecticut Player of the Year vote work?

The SI/SBLive Connecticut POY poll runs as a standalone article at si.com/high-school/connecticut — typically published in the weeks following each sport's CIAC season end. The SI Connecticut desk selects 5–8 nominees based on stats, team performance, and statewide impact, then opens a fan-vote widget embedded in the article. For a broader overview of how online sports fan polls operate in general, see our guide to online contest voting.

Unlike hourly-cap polls such as newspaper athlete-of-the-week formats, the SI POY poll does not enforce a one-vote-per-hour device cooldown. The vote is open-access during the window, which for fall sports has historically run from nomination announcement through December 31. The lack of a rate cap means the competitive dynamics differ: total reach matters more than sustained hourly voting behaviour.

• Find the active POY poll article at si.com/high-school/connecticut — the editorial team publishes a titled article such as "Vote: Who was the 2024 Connecticut Football Player of the Year?"
• The poll widget is embedded in the article; click your nominee's name and confirm your vote — no subscription, email, or SI account is required.
• Live vote totals are visible throughout the window, showing each nominee's share in real time.
• Voting typically closes December 31 for football; other sports follow their CIAC season end dates.

How is the Connecticut Player of the Year winner chosen?

The winner is the nominee with the highest cumulative fan-vote total when the poll closes — there is no editorial panel override or weighted scoring after the ballot is published. The SI Connecticut sports desk exercises control only at the nomination stage, selecting which athletes appear on the ballot from the season's top statistical performers and team contributors.

1. Nomination stage: the SI/SBLive Connecticut desk reviews end-of-season stats, all-conference selections, and notable team runs. Coaches, parents, and school contacts can submit standout performances for consideration through si.com/high-school/connecticut.
2. Ballot published: an article titled "Vote: Who was the [Year] Connecticut [Sport] Player of the Year?" goes live at si.com, typically in the two to three weeks after the CIAC season concludes, with 5–8 nominees each described briefly.
3. Fan voting runs: the community votes freely during the window — for fall football, through December 31.
4. Winner announced: a follow-up article names the winner, reports the final vote total, and provides season summary context. John Manning's 2024 win article was titled "Windsor's John Manning Voted High School On SI's 2024 Connecticut Football Player Of The Year."

A POY win on High School on SI carries national reach through the Sports Illustrated brand — the result is published on a platform with a US national audience, not only a local Connecticut readership, which gives the recognition additional weight in recruiting contexts compared to a local TV or newspaper poll.

Getting more votes for a Connecticut Player of the Year nominee

Because there is no per-hour vote cap, the POY's competitive dynamics reward breadth of reach over sustained hourly behaviour. Sharing the direct SI article link — not just the athlete's name — is the essential first step. For general vote-building strategy applicable to all online polls, see our how-to guide; the Connecticut-specific notes below focus on what drives results in this market.

Vote-building tactics by effort and fit for the SI POY format

The Hartford County CCC corridor — Windsor, Southington, Newington, Glastonbury — has produced the most competitive POY vote totals because those communities combine strong athletic traditions with well-organised digital-native booster networks. The 22,288 votes John Manning received in 2024 required genuine statewide mobilisation: family, alumni, current students, and social-media followers across Connecticut all contributing.

Fairfield County schools (FCIAC) bring a distinct advantage: a large, affluent, digitally active suburban parent demographic with high Facebook and Instagram engagement, giving schools like Greenwich, Staples, and Ridgefield outsised reach relative to their enrolment size.

When all organic networks have been activated and the vote gap remains large, some families use a paid real-voter promotion service to extend reach. If that route is considered, use a service that delivers genuine paced engagement — see our sports fan poll service for cap-matched delivery options, and always review the current contest rules first.

POY vote totals by sport — what does winning actually require?

The SI Connecticut POY competitive threshold varies significantly by sport and season. Football, with the broadest community following and the longest voting window (through December 31), produces the highest vote totals. Spring and winter sports with narrower fan bases require far fewer votes to win.

The football window's December 31 close matters: fans are home for the holidays, sports content engagement spikes nationally, and the SI/SBLive article sits in Connecticut search results for up to six weeks. The 2024 football POY ballot included Manning alongside other standout CIAC performers, meaning 22,288 votes was not the full statewide total — it was Manning's share against a contested field.

Rules and the buy-votes question for the SI Connecticut POY

The High School on SI Connecticut Player of the Year is a reader-engagement fan poll — not a formal sweepstakes with cash prizes or prize-promotion law obligations. The relevant restrictions are those set by SI/SBLive's poll platform for this specific vote. For a balanced overview of legality and risk across all online contest polls, visit our buy-votes guide.

Two different types of activity carry different risk profiles:

• Bot scripts / automated rapid-fire submissions — these attempt to bypass normal voting behaviour, generate detectable traffic anomalies, and are typically removed by poll platform moderation. They violate standard terms.
• Paid outreach to real human voters — real people visiting the article and casting genuine votes from their own devices. Structurally identical to a booster club email reaching a larger audience; it is fans voting, reached through a different channel. Whether this satisfies the spirit of SI's specific terms is a judgement each entrant must make after reading the current poll page.

The practical risk in a fan-vote recognition poll with no cash prize is reputational, not legal. A community win that is later perceived as inauthentic carries more risk in the tight-knit Connecticut prep-sports media environment — where reporters at CT Insider, the Hartford Courant, and the New Haven Register follow CIAC closely — than any formal penalty from the contest itself.

Connecticut Player of the Year season timeline — when does each sport vote?

High School on SI runs POY polls that track the CIAC calendar. Each sport gets its own voting window, published as a standalone article at si.com/high-school/connecticut after that sport's state tournament concludes. The table below maps the CIAC season structure to when POY votes typically open and close.

Football's December 31 deadline is the most distinctive feature of the SI POY calendar — no other CIAC sport-season poll runs through the end of the calendar year. This creates a unique mobilisation window: families and fans are home for the holidays, social media engagement is elevated during the break, and the article sits in search results as fans look back on the season.

For more on Connecticut prep-sports fan voting context, visit the Connecticut contest hub. For the full national picture of US high school sports fan polls, see the USA contest guide index. For practical strategies applicable to any open fan poll, the buy-votes guide covers the mechanics in detail.