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

What is the Vermont Varsity Insider Softball Player of the Year?

The Vermont Varsity Insider Softball Player of the Year — officially presented by Delta Dental of Vermont — is the Burlington Free Press's annual spring award recognising the most impressive breakout performance in Vermont girls high school softball. The Burlington Free Press, a Gannett regional daily operating under the USA TODAY Network brand, publishes the ballot online at burlingtonfreepress.com at the conclusion of each VPA spring softball season.

• The contest is softball-specific and girls-only — it is separate from the all-sport Vermont Varsity Insider Athlete of the Week poll and distinct from the broader Vermont High School Player of the Year (multi-sport) ballot.
• Each ballot features thirteen nominees drawn from all four VPA divisions (D1 through D4), ensuring small-school players from rural Vermont compete alongside athletes from the state's largest programmes.
• The framing is explicitly "breakout" performance — the poll rewards an athlete who stepped into a new level of play that spring, not necessarily a multi-year star.
• Delta Dental of Vermont, a major statewide dental benefits provider, is the presenting sponsor — their name appears alongside the award title and on Burlington Free Press coverage.
• No account, email address, or Vermont residency is required to vote — any person anywhere with access to burlingtonfreepress.com can cast ballots.
• Unlike the weekly Athlete of the Week poll, this is a once-per-season vote with a single six-to-seven-day window in late May or early June.

A win generates a published Gannett byline tied to the athlete's name — a searchable, credible third-party credential that surfaces in recruiting searches for college coaches scouting Vermont talent.

Which Vermont softball schools and divisions compete in this poll?

The Vermont Principals' Association organises high school softball across four enrollment-based divisions. The Burlington Free Press nominates thirteen players representing all four tiers for the breakout player ballot, so a D4 pitcher from a 200-student school competes on the same public stage as a D1 power hitter from one of the Chittenden County programmes.

Vermont's four VPA softball divisions

The geographic spread is significant: D1 programmes cluster in Chittenden County (the Burlington metro), Vermont's most populated area, while D2 through D4 schools scatter across Addison, Washington, Windsor, Caledonia, Franklin, and Orange counties. A breakout player from Lyndonville in the Northeast Kingdom or Rivendell near the New Hampshire border competes on equal ballot footing with a starter from a 1,500-student Chittenden County school.

How does the Vermont softball player of the year vote work?

The Burlington Free Press embeds its Gannett poll widget directly in a dedicated ballot article on burlingtonfreepress.com at the close of the VPA spring softball season — confirmed in 2026 to open Thursday, May 21, and close Wednesday, May 27, at 9 p.m. The poll is fully public: no subscription, no login, and no personal information is required to cast a vote.

The defining mechanic is unlimited submissions. Unlike some newspaper polls that enforce a one-vote-per-hour cap, this ballot places no per-voter or per-device ceiling — a supporter can vote dozens or hundreds of times from a single device across the window. That mechanic makes total mobilisation volume, not just unique-voter reach, the primary driver of winning totals.

Live running totals are displayed on the ballot page for all thirteen nominees throughout the window, updating continuously. Supporters can check standings at any point and calibrate whether a final-day push is needed. The poll works on all modern desktop and mobile browsers with no app required. For a plain-language explanation of how Gannett unlimited-vote polls function in general, see our guide to online contest voting.

How is the Vermont softball breakout player of the year winner decided?

The winner is the nominee with the highest vote total at the 9 p.m. Wednesday close — a pure reader poll with no editorial panel score, no weighted criteria, and no tie-breaking provision beyond raw vote count. The Burlington Free Press sports desk controls only the nomination stage; once the thirteen names go live, the outcome belongs entirely to the reader community.

1. Nomination: the Vermont Varsity Insider sports staff identifies standout spring softball performers from around the state, drawing on game coverage, coach input, and box scores from all four VPA divisions across the season.
2. Ballot publication: thirteen nominees — typically one or two from each division, spread geographically — are published in a Burlington Free Press article alongside the embedded poll widget. The article describes each player's breakout season.
3. Open voting window: supporters, families, teammates, and fans vote without cap from burlingtonfreepress.com for roughly six to seven days.
4. Winner announced: the player with the most votes when the window closes is named the Delta Dental Vermont High School Softball Breakout Player of the Year; the Burlington Free Press publishes the result on burlingtonfreepress.com and across Vermont Varsity Insider social channels.

Because the award is framed as "breakout" rather than "best overall," the editorial curation intentionally favours athletes who elevated their game that specific spring — a sophomore who burst onto the D2 scene or a senior who finally got healthy can outshine a recognised multi-year star on the ballot.

Building a winning vote total for Vermont softball player of the year

An unlimited-vote format rewards sustained, high-volume mobilisation over the entire window far more than a single opening-day push. Every realistic network — team, school, family, youth league alumni, community social media — should receive the direct ballot link on day one with an explicit ask to vote repeatedly before the Wednesday 9 p.m. deadline. For the full tactical framework on unlimited-vote newspaper polls, see our complete online voting guide and the sport-specific service at our sports fan poll votes page.

Vermont's small-state character works both ways in this poll. A nominee from a 300-student D4 school can legitimately compete if her community mobilises hard — the state's close-knit social fabric means a single Facebook post from a parent with local credibility can ripple through an entire county's parent network in hours. Conversely, a D1 Chittenden County nominee benefits from larger raw rosters and denser suburban social networks that generate higher base volumes.

When every organic channel has been exhausted and the nominee is still trailing close to the Wednesday deadline, some families use a paid real-voter service to close the gap. If you choose that route, prioritise services that pace votes over time rather than flooding the counter in a single burst — Gannett's poll platform monitors traffic patterns and bulk submissions trigger review.

What are the rules — and can you buy votes for this softball poll?

The Vermont Varsity Insider softball player ballot is a reader-engagement fan poll with no cash prize and no formal Vermont prize-promotion legal structure. Its technical restrictions come from the Gannett poll platform's own terms, which primarily prohibit automated scripts and bot tools that submit votes programmatically. For a balanced overview of how online poll rules work nationally, see our full buying-votes guide.

The meaningful practical distinction is between two types of activity:

• Automated scripts or bot tools — software that fires rapid-fire submissions faster than a human can click, or that rotates device fingerprints to bypass traffic monitoring. These conflict with platform terms and produce detectable traffic anomalies that result in vote stripping.
• Paid outreach to real human voters — real people casting genuine votes through normal browser sessions. Given the poll has no per-vote cap, even organic supporters are encouraged to vote repeatedly — so additional real voters reached through a promotion service are structurally identical to a booster email that reaches more families.

Whether that second type satisfies the spirit of any given Gannett poll's terms is a question each family and coaching staff must answer after reading the current official ballot page. The stakes in this format — a regional newspaper reader award, no financial prize — are reputational. The risk of an athlete's win being invalidated is low; the risk to family reputation in a small Vermont community if the effort appears excessive is a real consideration worth weighing.

VPA spring softball season timeline and when does voting open?

Vermont prep softball runs exclusively in the spring under VPA calendar rules. The Burlington Free Press softball player of the year poll opens only after the VPA spring season — including state championship tournament play — has concluded, making it a true end-of-season honour rather than a mid-season snapshot.

The compressed Vermont spring — frost risk through late April and a short regular season of roughly six to seven weeks — means a breakout season here is genuinely impressive. A pitcher who posts a 0.80 ERA across fifteen games in Vermont's cold-weather conditions, or an outfielder who hits .480 against the VPA's competitive D1 field, earns that "breakout" framing.

Timing the mobilisation effort matters: the poll opens while some Vermont families are still absorbed in the tournament run itself. The most effective campaigns start day-one outreach on the Thursday the ballot appears and build through the weekend, when families are away from school routines and more likely to vote repeatedly on phones.

For context on other Vermont prep athletic polls and state-level contests, see our Vermont contest hub. For all US high school sports voting guides, visit the USA contest guide index. General how-to guidance on maximising any online vote campaign is at our how-to centre.