She is active in Student Government, the Future Business Leaders of America (serves as treasurer of both organizations), and recognized as an outstanding defensive player for the Lady Wildcats varsity basketball team.

So what more could a high school kid be involved in?  Well, for starters, she holds the Georgia State  Girls 3 Record in Jumping and Overall.  She held the Girls 2 jump record until her younger sister (that's your author, by the way) eclipsed that mark this past Nationals.

Renee is a two time Southern Regional jump champion and this past summer claimed both the jump and slalom Southern Regional titles in her last year in the Girls 3 Division.  Renee has been a member of the U.S. National Junior Team for the past three years and has competed in the prestigious Junior Masters tournament at Callaway Gardens since 1996.  She is currently ranked 3rd in jumping on the IWSF Junior World Standings List.   As you can see, she has a fair number of skiing titles to go along with her school activities.

Renee trains with Jack Travers at his International Tournament Skiing facility in Okahumpka, Florida. Training at Jack's means she has received coaching and developed friendships with some of the world's best, including Brenda Baldwin, Susie Lohr, Dana Hinman, Charles Mueller, Christophe Duverger, Mike Hazlewood, Sammy Duvall and Rhoni Barton.  She considers the Travers' sons, Chris and Jonathon, like her own brothers.

In addition to Jack, Renee has also had the fortunate opportunity to train with Jim and Michael McCormick during U.S. Team training camps.

The Jaquess family members are close friends with Les and Cindy Todd (Cindy a former World Champion and World Record Holder), spending several days during each summer training with the Todd's (Ben, Tenille, and Joy).  It was a fitting moment this past Regional tournament when Renee and Ben, both in their last year in junior division competition, each won their respective jump event. In fact, Ben broke the Regional record by 15 feet, leaping a distance of 165'.

Renee has always been full of surprises.  At the age of 10 she went to her first ski school at Linda Giddens' facility in Eastman, GA for a week.
Thefollowing weekend, which happened to be Father's Day, Renee made the trip to Lake Alatoona with Linda and her ski school entourage to compete in the Atlanta Open water ski tournament hosted by the Atlanta Water Ski Club.

Renee's dad, Jim, was already there, serving as Chief Judge.
When it came time for Girls II jumping, Renee had quietly eased her way down to the starting dock. Much to her Dad's surprise, the next jumper was Renee. 'Happy Father's Day, Dad!', she shouted back to shore as she rode away her first tournament jump.  Linda had taught her to jump in less than a week!

Little did anyone know, but this little kid would break the Georgia State jump record in only two more seasons.  A record that had not been eclipsed for over a decade.

Renee's dad has paid the price for his daughters jumping prowess more than once.  It is a tradition of the Georgia Water Ski Federation that the father of any junior skier breaking the 100' mark in a tournament gets tossed into the lake.  Right on the spot.  He was tossed into the lake at Lake Walmead several years ago after Renee soared passed the century mark (and was recently tossed into Lake Whitestone when the author joined the century club as well).

Renee has been a very sociable person all of her life and enjoys the friendships she has developed over the years in water skiing.  She has grown up with the entire Hunt entourage (Brandi, Holli, Jami, and Tobi).

Renee considers fellow skiers Susie Lohr, Mandy Nightingale, Dana Hinman, Ben Todd, Carey Quackenbush, Ryan Fitts, Tom Newton, and Jessi Hill as close friends (just to name a few).



Renee is not only an extremely talented 3 event skier, she is also an AWSA Assistant Judge, helps drive the boat during practice, and does an admirable job coaching, particularly in her favorite event of jumping.

Although Renee is a 3 event skier, trick skiing is her least favorite event.  She loves to slalom, but mention jumping and her eyes light up. She has jumped 127' off the 5' ramp and has an average distance of over 126' on the Junior World Standings List, just behind fellow U.S. Junior Team mates Susie Lohr and Lindsey Trapp.  

Personal best performances, in addition to the 127' jump, include 3,190 points in tricks and 1.5@ 35' off in slalom.  

Renee's birthday is on December 11, so she has the unfortunate circumstance of having to advance into the Women 1 division a full year ahead of some of her contemporaries, like Chis Travers, who is only 5 weeks older than Renee.  The same for the Hunt triplets, who are in the same grade as Renee but have more fortunate birthdays.
Oh well, she could be like Daniel McCormick, who was born on December 31st!!  Now that is a really tough birthday for a skier!

Renee is looking forward to being able to ski in the Collegiate ranks.  Her family was a member of the Lake Walmead ski club in Milledgeville, Georgia since the lake was built.  She has witnessed numerous Collegiate tournaments, including the Collegiate Nationals and All-Stars, when they were held at Walmead.

Although looking very hard at Florida schools at this point, Renee is also considering Clemson, Alabama, Arizona State, NLU, and USL.

Ed and Carole Walker have served as mentors for the Jaquess sisters The Walkers were instrumental in advancing collegiate skiing to the level that it is at today. In fact, Ed had always commented that 'his' girls had a skiing scholarship at Georgia College, starting with Renee in 1999!  Ed
instilled in 'his' girls proper Southern manners, including how to respond to your elders, always with a yes sir or yes m'am, not just a 'yeh'.

When Renee was no more than eight years old, she received coaching from Steppan and Gabriella Bardizbanian, former members and coaches of the Bulgarian National Team. The Bardizbanians brought to Lake Walmead an Eastern European method of coaching, which included extensive and repetitive drills in learning the basics.  These skills  proved to be fundamental assets as Renee developed into a world class skier. And they continue to be the cornerstone for her development today.

Renee's off season training regimen includes running at least two miles every day, basketball practice for at least two hours each night during the week, and a custom designed weight training program to increase her strength.  She has added 2' to her vertical leap since school started in September.

Her physical training program during the off ski season complements the training program that was designed for her by Nancy Cummings of the Human Perfomance Centre at Sunset Lakes under a grant from the USOC. The USOC grant provides for  development of an athlete performance improvement program through a series of physical tests given during the U.S. National Junior Team training camp in the fall of each year.  Her basketball coach, Dawn Marsh, designed the conditioning program for her off water training, complementing that established by Nancy.

It should be noted that Ms. Marsh was a member of the NCAA National Women's Champion basketball team from the University of Tennessee.

Although not ready to commit to a particular career path, Renee would like to be involved in an occupation that provides assistance to people maybe medicine. But all that remains to be seen.  Right now she is concentrating on her high school basketball team and getting ready for the 1998 tournament season.

Renee is sponsored by O'Brien Skis, Correct Craft, International Tournament Skiing, Wiley Bindings, Moose Juice, Freestyler, and Performance Ski & Surf of Orlando.  

In addition to Lake Walmead, Renee is a member of the Sunset Lakes Ski Club.