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

Which Illinois schools compete in this poll — and where does it fit in IHSA athletics?

The Illinois High School Athlete of the Week is a truly statewide contest. High School on SI, the Sports Illustrated prep vertical that absorbed SBLive Sports, draws nominees from all corners of Illinois — from Chicago Catholic League powerhouses on the city's South Side to Southwestern Conference programmes in the Metro East suburbs of St. Louis. Illinois has more than 800 IHSA member schools across Classes 1A through 7A, and nominees have come from all of those classification tiers.

• Organizer: High School on SI (Sports Illustrated brand, formerly SBLive), operating Illinois coverage at si.com/high-school/illinois.
• Voting is free, no account required, no per-vote cap for human voters.
• Poll window: mid-week publication through Sunday 11:59 p.m. CT each week of the IHSA sports year.
• The IHSA — founded in 1900 and based in Bloomington — governs more than 800 member schools and roughly 350,000 student-athletes statewide.
• Illinois runs three IHSA sports seasons: Fall (late Aug – Nov), Winter (Nov – Mar), Spring (Mar – early Jun).
• Both boys and girls athletes are nominated; some weeks separate polls are run by gender, others are combined.

Real Illinois schools in the High School on SI nominee pool

The geographic split matters for vote-getting. Chicago Catholic League schools — Mount Carmel, Brother Rice, Loyola Academy — bring multi-generational alumni networks rooted in city and suburban parishes. Lincoln-Way East and Bolingbrook draw from large south and southwest suburban enrolments of 2,000-plus students. Edwardsville and East St. Louis represent the Metro East corridor, where downstate mobilisation has its own rhythm. A win from a 1A or 2A downstate school is entirely possible and has happened — the poll's statewide scope makes it accessible to every Illinois athlete, not just those at large suburban flagships.

How does Illinois High School Athlete of the Week voting actually work?

The poll is embedded in a weekly article at si.com/high-school/illinois. No subscription, account, or personal information is required to vote. The widget displays each nominee's name, school, and sport alongside a live vote tally that updates throughout the window.

Because there is no per-vote cap, the Illinois SI poll rewards sustained high-volume engagement rather than hourly pacing. A varsity football team of 60 players, each voting ten times in a single session, can add 600 votes in an hour. A booster club email reaching 400 parents — each voting five times — adds 2,000 more. The arithmetic of an open-cap poll scales sharply with network size and instruction clarity. For a broader explanation of how online contest polling platforms work across formats, see our guide to online contest voting.

How is the Illinois Athlete of the Week winner chosen?

The winner is determined entirely by raw fan vote total. High School on SI's Illinois editorial staff controls the nominee stage — they select which athletes appear on the ballot based on standout IHSA performances from the preceding week — but once the poll opens, the outcome rests entirely with fans. No judge's panel, no weighted scoring, no editorial override at the result stage.

1. Performance submission: coaches, parents, and school athletic contacts submit highlights to the SI Illinois reporters or via the SBLive platform submission channels — stat lines, game context, coach comments.
2. Nominee selection: the High School on SI Illinois editorial staff assembles the ballot by editorial judgement. Not every submission earns a spot; the staff prioritises statistical significance, team impact, and newsworthiness across that specific week's IHSA competition.
3. Poll runs: the article and embedded poll widget go live mid-week; fans vote freely through Sunday at 11:59 p.m. CT.
4. Winner announced: the Illinois athlete with the most votes at close is named that week's winner. Results are published on si.com/high-school/illinois and promoted through Sports Illustrated and SBLive social media accounts.

There is no cash prize and no physical trophy. The value is a published, third-party credential on a nationally recognised sports media platform — a byline on si.com that is permanently searchable by college coaches, media members, and recruiting services. For athletes at mid-sized downstate Illinois schools competing for attention beyond their immediate conference, an SI Athlete of the Week win can surface in a way that no local newspaper poll can replicate.

How do you build a winning vote total for Illinois High School Athlete of the Week?

Open-cap polls operate differently from hourly-capped newspaper polls. The full window — from poll publication through Sunday 11:59 p.m. CT — is your resource. Every person with access to the link is a multi-vote source. Network reach and instruction clarity are the two variables that move the needle. For generic tactics that apply across all online contest formats, see our online voting guide; the Illinois-specific notes below cover what produces real results in this market.

Illinois-specific mobilisation patterns

Two patterns consistently separate Illinois campaigns that win from those that fall short. First, Chicago Catholic League schools — Mount Carmel, Brother Rice, Loyola Academy — sit inside tight alumni and parish networks where a single forwarded message can reach hundreds of former graduates overnight. Second, large south and southwest suburban schools like Lincoln-Way East and Bolingbrook have enrolments above 2,000 students; a push through the student council or athletic director's weekly newsletter alone can generate thousands of votes before Wednesday.

When every organic network has been activated and the nominee is still trailing, some Illinois families and booster programmes use paid promotion services to reach additional real human voters. If you go that route, choose a service that delivers genuine votes — not scripts. Our sports fan poll votes service is designed for open-cap formats like this one.

Illinois High School Athlete of the Week — IHSA season timeline

The poll runs across all three IHSA sports seasons and pauses only during the summer break. The season structure below maps directly to the IHSA academic sports calendar, which the High School on SI Illinois staff follows to align weekly nominations with active competition weeks.

Within each week, the poll article typically publishes on Monday or Tuesday after the High School on SI Illinois staff reviews weekend IHSA results. The Sunday 11:59 p.m. CT close has been the consistent endpoint across seasons, though the staff adjusts for holiday weekends and dense tournament scheduling weeks. Always verify the exact close time on the current week's article at si.com/high-school/illinois — never assume a fixed hour.

For broader context on Illinois voting contests across school elections, mascot polls, and community recognition awards, see our state hub. For all US contest guides visit the USA contest index.

Rules and the buy-votes question — what the platform actually prohibits

The Illinois High School Athlete of the Week is a media brand's reader-engagement poll — not a regulated sweepstakes, not a scholarship contest, not a government election. Illinois consumer protection law does not govern a free fan recognition poll of this type. The only binding restrictions come from the High School on SI platform's own terms.

There is a meaningful structural difference between two categories of activity:

• Automated bots and scripts — software submitting votes without real human interaction. Explicitly banned. Detectable by platform traffic analysis. Consequence: vote disqualification for that week.
• Paid outreach to real human voters — real people manually clicking the poll widget, reached through a paid channel rather than organic sharing. Structurally identical to a booster club email reaching a larger audience. Whether this satisfies the contest's intent is a judgement each family should make after reading the current official terms.

The practical risk on a fan recognition poll with no cash prize and no formal legal framework is reputational, not legal. Families and programmes weighing paid promotion should read the current official poll page, assess the risk of vote removal against the recognition value of a win, and decide accordingly. See our guide to online contest voting for a fuller discussion of how these risks compare across poll formats.