Raven Barnes recently won the gold medal for boxing at the 2009 Junior Olympic National Championship in Denver, according to a press release from the Washtenaw Intermediate School District. She is the first female national boxing champion in Washtenaw County.

Barnes has been boxing since 2007. She says she’s wanted to box “since she was a little girl,” however, her mother objected. But Barnes didn’t give up. When the family moved to Ypsilanti, her uncle found a gym (the A-Square Fight Club home to the A 2 Youth Boxing program) and her mother consented.

What does her mother say now that her daughter is a gold medal winner? “I am so proud of Raven. She has a really good head on her shoulders, and I hope that she never gets it knocked off," Chanda Victoria said.

Barnes, who recently turned 16, participates in the Early College Alliance @ Eastern Michigan University program through Ypsilanti Public Schools. In two years, Barnes has transitioned through the early college program and is attending Eastern Michigan full time as a high school student.

She has a 3.6 grade point average and has completed 18 credit hours at Eastern Michigan.

Raven will box in Ann Arbor on Saturday at the A-Square Fight Club’s fundraiser: “Boxing at Buhr Park” and in late August at the A-Square Fight Club's James "Lights Out" Toney three-day tournament. For ticket information, go to: www.a2fightclub.com or call (734) 585-8823. Her next competition will be in the Ringside World Tournament in Kansas City in early August.