If Fridays alone don’t provide enough competition for area prep football fans, I’ve got some good news.

Beginning today, The Minot Daily News is rolling out a new feature: our Pigskin Player of the Week.

Each Monday, we’ll announce our three finalists for the award. Now’s here’s where you, the readers, come in: the player of the week will be decided by an online poll on minotdailynews.com.

The player with the most votes by noon on Wednesday will be featured in Thursday’s paper.

As far as I can tell, votes are unlimited. So get the word out to family, friends and everyone in between. You’re not going to want to let your rival’s quarterback win.

Here’s our three finalists for this week:

-Brett Schaefer, Des Lacs-Burlington: The senior running back carried 11 times for 164 yards and a touchdown in the Lakers’ thrilling 20-19 season-opening victory over North Prairie.

-Sean Soukup, North Prairie: The senior running back scored a rushing TD, receiving TD and fumble return TD on Tuesday in a 48-7 win against Bottineau. Then he rushed for 182 yards on 24 carries and caught a touchdown pass Saturday against Des Lacs-Burlington.

-Seth Vivier, St. John: The junior quarterback completed 19 of 26 passes for 568 yards and seven touchdowns Friday in the Woodchucks’ 54-30 win over Divide County. On Tuesday, he passed for four TDs and ran for another in a 40-8 rout of Dunseith.

Choose wisely, folks.

I hope the weekly contest is something you look forward to. We’ll also be rolling out some other new additions to our prep sports coverage this fall. Keep an eye out for those.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or just need fantasy football advice – I’m kidding about that last one – shoot me an email at rholmgren@minotdailynews.com.

Ryan Holmgren is the sports editor of The Minot Daily News. Follow him on Twitter @ryanholmgren.