Cheyenne East High School senior Jordan Jones was selected the Gatorade Wyoming Girls Basketball Player of the Year for 2021-22.

In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company announced the award on Wednesday via release to the media. Jones is the third-ever selection from Cheyenne East High School.

The 6-foot guard-forward has led Cheyenne East to a 25-0 record and a berth in the Class 4A girls' state basketball tournament. The Thunderbirds are trying to repeat as Class 4A champions. Cheyenne East won the regular-season championship in the 4A East Conference and won the 4A East Regional Championship last weekend in Cheyenne.

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Jones is averaging 15.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game at the time of her selection. She adds 2.8 assists and 2.9 steals per contest. Jones is shooting 47 percent from the field and 79 percent at the free-throw line. She’s a 39 percent shooter from 3-point range. She leads the 4A East Region in scoring and is tied for first in steals. Jones is one of two players that ranks among the Top 10 of the region in scoring, rebounds, and assists.

Jones was an all-conference selection in the 2020 season at Cheyenne Central. She played last year, her junior season, in Colorado.

The senior has volunteered locally with the BEAST Foundation, an afterschool program that offers STEM programs for children and young adults. Jones maintains a weighted 3.49 GPA in the classroom. She is undecided on a college destination at this time.

In the release from The Gatorade Company, Jackson head coach Andrea Joyce pointed to how Jones is an all-around player.

“Jordan can shoot from anywhere on the court and can play inside and out,” said Andrea Joyce, head coach of Jackson High School. “It’s hard to find a player [like Jones] that is physical enough to play down low with the bigs, but who also has great guard skills as well.”

The award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. It distinguishes Jordan Jones as Wyoming’s best high school girls’ basketball player. She is a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced later this month.

Jones joins recent winners Allyson Fertig from Douglas High School (2020-21 & 2019-20), Rylee Hladky of Campbell County High School (2018-2019), and McKinley Bradshaw of Lyman (2017-18), among the state’s list of previous winners of this award.

According to the release, as a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Jones has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of her choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports. She is also eligible to submit a short video explaining why the organization she chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants has totaled more than $3.5 million across more than 1,300 organizations.

Information in a press release from The Gatorade Company was used in this story.

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