April 2021 Newsletter

Letter from The Head Of School

March epitomizes life at Wy’East Academy with students applying to college while working on school on the road for competitions & film shoots. Time management is one of the hardest skills to master in life & all of the students have been applying what they have learned to balance the rigors of maximizing their time to progress athletically, academically & residentially. Time waits for no man & we are proud of all of our students who did their best to stay on top of their busy schedules while competing for spots against the best in the world & producing amazing content for social media. I have been amazed by our staff here who have been working together to support each other across all of the different departments to help the students stay on pace to finish the year strong & achieve their goals. Spring has sprung & while there is still a lot of snow on the mountains, we have started to get more sunny days as a reminder that summer is just around the corner. We are looking forward to finishing the 2020-2021 school year as the best year ever with two of our students moving forward in the most prestigious video ski contest in the world matched by our seniors stacking up acceptance letters to over a dozen four year universities in three different countries! This year would not have been possible without the support of our amazing parents so thank you all for working with us over the course of the last seven months.

-Mike Hanley

Academics

March has been a spectacular start to a sunny spring here in Sandy, Oregon. Each team was able to travel this month, and the students did a great job of preparing for their trips by getting ahead in classes. During school breaks, students have been taking advantage of the sunshine and enjoying our facilities on campus: the outdoor supertramp, the concrete jungle, and the mountain bike trails especially.

With the School Day SAT around the corner, April 13th, students signed up to take the SAT are preparing for the standardized test by taking additional practice tests, studying tips and tricks, and going over test answer explanations

The campus overall average GPA is 3.33 (B+); students are getting closer to achieving the Wy’East Mountain Academy goal of earning a 3.5 GPA. As the end of the semester approaches, students are working towards improving their grades and finalizing their coursework plans with our academic staff, and seniors are anxiously awaiting graduation.

Kayla Hokanson chose Madison Weisman for Student of the Month because she works proactively, she produces exceptional work, and she sets high goals for herself and works diligently to achieve them.

Jaime Vincent chose Hazel Predpelski for Student of the Month because she always comes to class first/early, applied to a few colleges, and has been staying focused!

Robbie Walters chose Joey Killeen for Student of the Month because he is always on time and on task with a respectful attitude. He is a pleasure to have in class and always meets or exceeds expectations.

-Jaime Vincent, Kayla Hokanson & Robbie Walters

Student Life

With the weather getting warmer and dryer, students have been able to enjoy the never ending wonders of campus. They have been soaking up the sun while skating in the jungle and setting up the mountain bike airbag. You know it is springtime when the tie-dye comes out! Each team will have the opportunity to create a bag or dye something of their own. We had a few teams go adventure off campus in search of waterfalls near the Columbia River Gorge. Eagle Creek was closed due to a recent storm but the students were able to find some beautiful waterfalls nearby. The skate team had to put their mind to the test while also experiencing a fun way to build some positive team energy at the Escape Rooms in Portland. While they did not complete the challenge, they were presented with all new puzzles and a completely new and surprising storyline. For students who haven’t been behind a wheel yet, they went down to K1 Speed for some go-karting! The mountain bike team did pretty well at K1 speed with Harper getting 3rd place. We are very excited for the students for the next upcoming adventure this semester has in store for them.

-Alissa Hetzel, Phil Geyselaers, Asa Howe, Levi Thompson, Aaron Reynolds & Natala Thorenson

Mountain Bike

Hello Bike Families,

The end of the semester is quickly approaching and we are all still working hard to get everyone ready for the race season coming up. We will be starting a Race Team this summer with the hopes of keeping everyone involved throughout the summer and supported at the races. If you have any interest, or know of anyone who may be interested please let me know. We will still be offering a Summer Academy Semester as well as Camps. We are also starting to fill up for next year so if you are planning on returning I recommended confirming your spot sooner than later.

In March we added a few new places to the list of places we have ridden including Capital Forest, The Lumberyard and Windrock, Tennessee. We had a great trip for the Tennessee National which was our first National Event as well as our first trip flying with bikes. We had some success and learned a lot. Some highlights were Etan getting 3rd and Jackson 10th in Cat 1 U16, Kade getting 10th in Sport U21, and Taylor, Harper and Coach Asa’s lines in the RedBull Freeride event.

-Wynn Berns & Tyler Vollopito

Snowboard

The snowboard crew has just returned to campus after a stellar month spent in three different states riding big named destinations like Copper Mountain, Mammoth, Squaw Valley, and Boreal. March provided some seriously good times starting with our finals days in Colorado. We soaked up the sunshine riding Woodward at Copper before the second Rev Tour stop; however, on competition day, the weather proved to be challenging with a storm rolling in. Isabella and Arianna both managed to push through the conditions and made the best of it. Everyone was looking forward to getting home after almost three weeks on the road, while Oregon recorded something like 18 feet of new snow, so we were welcomed back with a whole new park set up at Timberline that made for some great training!

Our time in Oregon didn’t last too long before we packed back up and hit the road down to sunny California for an event at Mammoth and some days in Lake Tahoe. Day one at Mammoth provided the crew with an unexpected pow day that did not disappoint! We managed to get some local intel about an area of the mountain that was untouched so naturally, that’s exactly where we went and stayed for most of the day. To complete the full Mammoth experience we then ventured out to the hot springs during the evening to enjoy a good soak and appreciate being in a new place. The team was able to practice for the event for three days before competing on that Thursday with a pretty big field of snowboarders. Hazel, Arianna, Kennedy, and Willie represented for the academy!

We wrapped up our time in Mammoth on that Friday, hopped back in the van and sent it a few hours north up to Tahoe. We turned that travel day into a very fun adventure stopping at Mono Lake, three different skateparks, Sierra Nevada University, and dipped in Lake Tahoe all before ending up at our Air BnB in Truckee. I think it’s safe to say that everyone was blown away by the beauty that Lake Tahoe holds as it truly is something special. We decided to take Saturday morning to continue our adventurous spirit and drive around the lake, starting on the West shore and going south to Emerald Bay, South Lake, and then back up to North Lake and Truckee. That evening the crew went to Boreal for some sunset into full moon boarding- I don’t know what could have made that day any better. Our final day on the road was spent at Squaw Valley with warm temps and sunshine. What a way to end the trip!

While most other resorts are starting to think about shutting down this month, it’s time for us to unpack our bags and settle in for the much anticipated Spring riding at Timberline. We are very much looking forward to our final month of the semester as things are just heating up here in Oregon and are looking amazing for the summer program shredding!

Cheers to spring!

Elijah Teter, Brandon Sorel, & Luke Giacopelli

Freeski

Greetings Ski Families!

We have been on the go all of this month with snow storms, private park shoots, and a team trip to mammoth. It really has been March madness in the best sense of the saying! Timberline is logging 485” of annual snowfall this season which is the most they’ve had in years. With all of the snow has come some amazing terrain parks and training opportunities for us.

The highlight of this month was our trip to Spokane, who really rolled out the red carpet for us! They were excited for us to come up and create some content for us providing us with lift tickets and meals for the entire squad. Their park was a fun mix of large, small and everything in between sized features with a creative layout. All of this was accessed by a nostalgic single pole double chair that took you to the top with a great view of Spokane and the surrounding area. They even set up a sunrise shoot where we loaded the lifts at 5:30am, and were greeted at the park by the mountains marketing team, a hired photographer and a fleet of sleds to tow the students back to the top of jump! They were stoked on our team and have extended an for us to come back anytime!

Now that the bulk of our travel for the semester is over we look forward to spending some time at home and enjoying some slushy spring laps on Mt. Hood!

-Brian McCarthy, Kevin "Tweak" Merchant & Griffin Dunne