November 2023 Edition

A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Tucker Beck, Devin Lindenmeyr, Hugh MacMenamin, Ryan Buttars, Joey Killeen, and Luka Kuharic sightseeing in Austria.

As Halloween came to a close, it was a reminder that somehow October had come & gone. In addition to a stretch of great weather on campus as the leaves all began to change colors, we had our most successful Parents Weekend combined with our annual in-person Board of Trustees Meeting & fundraiser Good in the Woods. Thank you very much to everyone who was able to help participate this year as we were able to raise over $50,000 for our tuition assistance program. No sooner had we cleaned up the festivities of the fundraiser at Nemo Design in Portland, that our ski & snowboard programs were in the air en route to Austria. College applications have been going out for our 19 seniors as all of the programs hit the road, the campus went quiet for a couple days. By the end of the month it was great to see the snow teams return from Europe as the skaters came back tanned from the California sun & the Mountain Bikers were ready for a nap after a strike mission up to Canada. Parents weekend offered an amazing opportunity for the staff & student body to explain what their goals were in addition to displaying their skills before everyone made their way down to Good in the Woods. Thank you very much to all of you who donated & supported us with your bidding, none of this would be possible without you!

Mike Hanley

ACADEMICS

Students taking advantage of a nice afternoon

Meet New Teacher, Adam Moreschi
I am from Portland, Oregon. I got my BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Western Oregon University with focus areas in Business, Computer Science and Health/Physical Education. In my years of coaching and working in various school districts, I have always enjoyed getting to know the students and developing ways to keep them engaged and performing to the very best of their abilities. Helping each student maximize their learning potential and utilize their life skills is why I am excited to be here at Wy'East.

STUDENT OF THE MONTH

SEPTEMBER STUDENT OF THE MONTH: CAM HICKEY

Cam is a dedicated, hard worker who carries himself with confidence and excellence. He has his mind set on some big long term goals which is huge for a 9th grader. His Starbucks order is a double-Smoked Bacon Cheddar & Egg Sandwich, Strawberry Acai Lemonade (Light Ice), and a coffee cake.
-Brian, Coach

Although Cam is small in stature, he carries himself with the weight of an NFL lineman. We are all going to be telling people "we knew him when" for years to come!
-Mike, Head of School

Cam leads naturally with the instilled virtues of diligence, kindness, and courage. In the classroom, Cam models the traits of an eager learner through his curious mind and focused attention. In more formal conversations and in casual encounters around campus, his joyful countenance and refined civility make him an engaging conversationalist who always has something positive and meaningful to share. Cam is simply a gifted leader:)
-Jeremy, Teacher

STUDENT LIFE

Cam Hickey posing at Scaregrounds Haunted Houses

It’s crazy to think we begun October with Parents Weekend, and it seems so much time has gone by since then. We had over 60 students, family members, and staff join us for the bluebird day at Splat Action Paintball. It was our largest Parents Weekend yet, and we are so happy to have shared the beautiful weather with you all. Shortly thereafter, more than 2/3 of our students departed for Europe on a two-week training trip. While home, the mountain bike team spent a productive weekend volunteering at a trail maintenance and development day at Post Canyon in Hood River, just on the other side of Mt. Hood. Other activities the mountain bike and skate teams enjoyed included a race day at K1 Speed, and watching one of the last Timbers games of the season. Upon the arrival of all of our students back on campus, we celebrated Halloween at the Scaregrounds haunted houses. Our student government is working diligently on a cold plunge and sauna reward system project, and we are excited to see this become a part of the student lifestyle next month.

Barbara Edwards

CULINARY

The month of October has come and gone. It was busy and not so busy for the Culinary Department. First off, I want to thank all the Parents who made it out to Parents Weekend. It was awesome to see everyone and touch base with some parents regarding the food on campus. I hope everyone enjoyed the food that we provided on Campus and at Goods in the Woods. As for the month as a whole, the Culinary Department had some great meals for the students. One evening, Kellen made Smoked Lamb for the students before they left for Austria. We also made their favorite lunch meals and breakfast meals. Half the month, most of the students were on trips around the world. So, we were able to have some down time for the crew, which we needed. This coming month, we will see a reduction in students on campus around the Thanksgiving holiday.

Travis Gibson
Culinary Director

FREESKI

Ski team touring The College of Architecture at the University of Innsbruck

Hello Families!

Whoowee, what a great action packed month we had on the freeski team. We spent the first couple weeks honing in on everyone's goals for Austria for both rails and jumps. The days were filled by rotating groups from the gym to the trampolines as well as the outdoor dry slopes. Comradery and drive has been on the up throughout the team.

It was nice to see a lot of you here at the annual Parents weekend and get some face time, catching up on how your student athlete is doing. It’s always a great opportunity for you to get to check out what student life is like here with our demo’s on the facilities.

Our pre-season Training Camp to Austria proved to be productive for everyone. Traveling with roughly 50 people between us and the Snowboard team our journey across the world went incredibly smooth. All bags arrived on time and like a round of Tetris we were able to fit the countless ski/board bags and everyone safely into the 6 vehicles. Slightly jet lagged but filled with excitement we woke up the next day and headed up to the Hintertux Glacier. There we enjoyed a nice reentry back to snow and everyone began to get their feet back under them familiarizing themselves with the park. We spent the next couple days at the main attraction of the trip “Banger Park”. Banger hosts a world class airbag training facility with three different sized jumps for any and all abilities. Brian, Shannon and I would divide and conquer and each be set in a different zone to help cater to each athlete. Progression, progression, progression! It was clear to see the benefit from the bag sessions, watching each kid finish their sessions having learned something new whether it was big or small. Conditions on the glacier proved to be challenging but we maximized our weather windows when given and had some great hiking sessions on the rails when visibility was less than ideal.

When not on snow we filled our time with trips to Innsbruck to soak up some culture checking out museums, old churches and certainly dining on plenty of pizza and wiener schnitzel. We also got the chance to tour The College of Architecture at the University of Innsbruck. We were guided around by a current student who was a friend of a Wy’East Academy Alumni. He gave us a thorough tour through lecture halls, 3D model rooms and other various zones where students were working on current projects. We got to meet a few other active students who spoke about their senior projects and involvement with working on designs for city parks, apartment buildings and local businesses.

To sum it all up, October was certainly a month to remember. Keep an eye out for our weekly emails to stay up to date on all things freeski. Let it snow!!!

-Topher, Shannon & Brian

MOUNTAIN BIKE

Hello Mountain Bike Families!

October was a good month to be a mountain biker on campus! We saw some of the best conditions while home in Oregon with just enough rain and sun to create some hero dirt conditions. October also featured two action packed trips, the slopestyle/freeride trip to Highland MTB park and a team wide trip up north to Coast Gravity park.

Highland- The team was blown away with the amount of trails, features, and jumps that highland had to offer. We were able to make great use out of their indoor facility as well with students learning new things with their flatdrop to foam setup. This is a dream setup for a free rider as flat drop tricks are very intimidating to try without having a foam pit to train in. The rest of the park was great as well, with a jump every 50 feet across the entire hill. Some of the kids were intimidated by the big jumps and we took a few days of riding and thinking to get them through the main slopestyle line. We initially traveled out to highland for the slopestyle contest they were hosting, but unfortunately the comp was rained out and we had to improvise. Instead of the comp, we spent the rainy day inside of their state of the art indoor training facility. The rest of the trip was relatively smooth with lots of ride time in the park. We saw lots of progression with the kids who went, especially mentally, and I am super stoked we were able to make this trip happen. On our way back to the Boston airport, we stopped by MIT for a quick peek of a world much different than ours. The kids got to listen in on some passing tours being given, as well as stand in front of "The Great Dome". All and all it was a success.

Coast Gravity Park- Our team training camp up at the legendary Coast Gravity Park was also an epic trip. We stayed in Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia right on a bluff overlooking the bay, with islands in the distance. We had some pretty awesome sunrises and sunsets while at home. The team also enjoyed the hot tub in between school sessions once we were back from the park. While at the park, we were able to ride all together on most laps because of the small size of the park, and the fact that everyone was on the same shuttle every lap. This led to quality coaching time, great group riding, and plenty of student videos. The conditions up there were world class as well. We saw 3 sunny (but chilly) days with wet, grippy dirt. I've personally been up here about 5 or so times and have never seen it this good! The kids had a blast, and the progression was unreal. We had students work on getting through the big jump line for 3 days, and finally on the last day they were able to clear the entire line! This is a tough task not just because of the jumps but the corners as well. In order to clear the jumps, the rider must perfectly execute the exit speed of the corner to get the speed for them.

Stoked for what November brings!

Asa Howe and Alejandro Bolio

SNOWBOARD

Hello Snowboard Families!

The Austria trip has come and gone! Between the many ups and downs of the trip, the kids had an absolute blast, and were able to get on snow for the first time this semester. With a healthy mix of riding the park at Hintertuxx and the world class landing bags at Banger Park, there has been a tremendous amount of progress, creating a baseline for the coaches to work with for the semester. They persevered through inclement weather, making the most of each day, with the biggest highlights coming from our time at Banger Park. Hopefully you all have been hearing stories and seeing photos/videos from our time over there!

Since coming back from Austria, many of the students have been taking academic “double days” in order to catch up on any school work they fell behind on during the trip. But for those that were able to balance both class work, travel, and training, they’ve been taking full advantage of our training blocks! It’s our goal to start getting the students ahead on their classes, as training will only increase as we get closer and closer to the competition season. With competitions ranging from local USASA, IFSA Big Mountain events, Futures & Rev tours, all three teams will have an incredibly busy schedule. Depending on the cooperation of the weather, we will start taking the kids up to the mountain to get them more time on the snow, but until then, we will be getting back into the routine we set prior to our international trip.

Until next time, with warm regards and a hope for cold weather,

Brandon, Stew, and Alec

skateboard

Hi Families!
October has been an absolutely amazing month for the skate program! The students have been putting in a lot of work and progressing a ton.The weather has been holding out for us so we have been able to take advantage of it and skate the jungle and some of the parks in the greater Portland area. We also snuck away to the coast and got a surf/skate day in Pacific City.

The big event for skate was our trip to San Francisco. The trip was amazing! We had great weather, lots of great food, met up with some cool people, and skated some epic spots. We got a full tour of the city and would spend all day out exploring. Leaving the airbnb at 8am and usually not making it back until 8pm. We visited the University of San Francisco, University of California Santa Cruz, California College of the Arts, and stayed next to San Francisco State but never actually made it onto that campus. On our rest morning we took the ferry through the fog into the bay to explore Alcatraz which we all really enjoyed. Santa Cruz gave us the opportunity to hope in the water and surf for a couple hours. So we watched a high school surf contest at The Lane before renting boarding and hoping in at Cowells. It was fun surfing with everyone at a spot that is so special to me and everyone caught waves! A highlight of the trip was our stop at Deluxe Distribution. DLX is called the heart of skateboarding and runs some of the most successful brands out there (Spitfire, Real, Anti Hero, Venture, Thunder, Krooked, Unity, and Their). The art room crew gave us a tour of the facility giving the students a behind the scenes look at everything they do. I truly mean everything, nothing was off limits: graphics, timelines, distribution, RandD, Sales, Team Management, anything if the students had questions they answered. We met up with the Venture Team/Brand Manager Zach who used to go by “Ducky”. Zach talked about his journey as a pro skateboarder skating X games, having his name on a board, skating the heaviest rails ever done, all while getting his degree from UC Irvin. While the parks in SF are really good we spent most of our time skating in the streets. San Francisco is a mecca for skating but it's also considered one of the toughest places to skate, so it put the students to the test and they all got a few clips in the streets.

November is often a cold wet month on campus, so we are very lucky to have a heated indoor park on campus. Our focus will be on our skate shop projects and preparing for our next trip to Southern California at the end of the month.

Brian Johnson