If it’s true that a picture says a thousand words, then one look at Raeanne Jones tells you that she’s irresistibly charming. Her smile is alluring and resonates confidence. There are many words that begin with the letter “C” that could describe Raeanne, but she’s no “C” student. Jones, a junior at Chino Hills High School carries a 4.0 grade point average while handling the placekicking duties for the varsity football team, playing soccer in the spring, oh and she was also named 2017 Homecoming Queen during halftime of the Etiwanda — Chino Hills football game last Friday night.
Raeanne has already earned a Division I scholarship to play soccer for Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona which adds to her extraordinary list of accomplishments.
Friday the 13th often conjures up images of strangeness and oddities. It was last week, Friday the 13th that I was out in Chino Hills covering the game between Etiwanda and Chino Hills for HSPN West. During our pre-game set-up, I remember thinking it was a little odd seeing Raeanne Jones not necessarily in a football uniform, but in full make-up and in a football uniform.
Little did I know that she was part of the Homecoming Court until she appeared with the other Homecoming Queen candidates during an interview I was taping with them before the game. It wasn’t until one of our sideline correspondents, Shaylie Fawcett, captured a candid picture of Raeanne on the sidelines after she had won Homecoming Queen at halftime, tweeted the picture with a caption that went viral across the nation with close to 20k+ impressions in just a couple of hours did we know we had someone very special on our hands. That night HSPN fans across the nation got to witness a historical moment unfold in front of them in real time, their first look at a very special person that had just accomplished something that no other student athlete in the nation could attain or maybe never has attained.
Jones made all of her extra point kicks, and each of the kicks were critical allowing Chino Hills to remain within one score of a scoring frenzied game that ended with Etiwanda on top 63-60.
Raeanne was not the featured story of the night, nor was she designated as one of the “Impact Players” for Chino Hills prior to the game. But, she obviously captured the interest of many beyond the football field once her story went viral on Twitter that night. And with all of the comments to her tweet that went viral Jones quickly became the feature story of the night.
So, I went back to Chino Hills High School this week to spend time with her exclusively and I’m sure you will be no less impressed after hearing her story.
Here is Part I of the interview from October 18 in primetime at 8:00 PM PST. Part II will air Thursday, October 19 at 8:00 PM PST.
Here is Part 2 of Raeanne Jones Interview with HSPN Sports David Hill;