Who was the best Big School Softball Player in the 2026 season? Vote now!

After months filled with excitement and tears of happiness and sadness, the spring sports season is officially over in the Gainesville area.

The end of the season marks the release of the Gainesville Sun's All-Area teams. As such, we'll be releasing 11 All-Area teams for six spring sports (baseball, softball, lacrosse, flag football, tennis and track and field).

All teams can be viewed on Gainesville.com/sports/high-school. For all these sports, we're picking a Player of the Year — the athlete we and area coaches thought was the best.

However, we want to give you, the fans, the chance to make your voice heard.

That's why we're releasing Player of the Year polls to accompany each All-Area teams. Each of the first-team nominees in a respective sport will be a candidate.

Below is the poll for the best big school softball player in 2026. We released this team Wednesday and picked Santa Fe's Rylee Swilley as our Player of the Year. There are 12 nominees from which to choose, and you can vote as many times as you'd like. The poll closes at noon Tuesday, July 8.

Please share this poll with family and friends, and congratulations to all of those on the All-Area teams and their families!

Noah Ram covers Florida Gators athletics and Gainesville-area high school sports for The Gainesville Sun, GatorSports.com and the USA TODAY Network. Contact him at nram@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X @Noah_ram1, Instagram @Ramreporter and Facebook Noah Ram - Reporter.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Who was the best Big School Softball Player in the 2026 season? Vote now!