If I'm not mistaken, this award is chosen by media (newspaper) and depends on the publicity a player gets. A lot of small town's don't have media so these players have no chance. I've noticed a couple of the finalist ( and yes they are good ) got their picture in the papers and a huge write up EVERY game they played no matter what anyone else on their team did. Not many players have this same opportunity. so, it does seem unfair. and by the way ... Newman and Fuller are Juniors but so is Hall and Beechboard so that doesn't have anything to do with it.
Take Amber Benjamin for example .... the Manchester paper is a small weekly production. Who else covers Manchester. Murfreesboro & Nashville have all the big publicity in Middle TN.