LETTER FROM HEAD OF SCHOOL

The days are getting longer & our time in the 2021-2022 school year is getting shorter at Wy'East Academy. Acceptance letters have continued to flow in to students along with podium performances around the country. Our mountain bike students returned from their National Championships in Tennessee with five champions as our snow athletes are on the road now for their National Championships in Colorado. It has been an amazing year seeing the global pandemic finally begin to wane & we are all able to breathe easier without the constant facemasks. I personally returned from the World Cup Finals in Europe where the best skiers & snowboarders from around the globe were excited to wrap up their seasons following the Olympic Games in February. Many of these program are excited to come out here this summer so make sure to book your dates before they are gone.

-Mike Hanley

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ACADEMICS

Spring has sprung in Oregon–cherry blossoms are budding in the Sandy area and daffodils are blooming on campus. Students have been soaking up the sunshine by working on school outside on the lawn/picnic tables.  

Several students took the SAT on March 23rd.  Most scores will be available after April 15th.  Next fall we will offer both the SAT and PSAT on campus.  Students are always welcome to sign up for ACTs and SATs in the Portland metro area individually as well.

Students now have less than a month to wrap up their courses.  Courses close on April 27th.  If you would like to sign your student up for summer courses, reach out now!

Alessia Vergani earned Student of the Month for being ahead of pace before her trips, revising work when needed to keep her grades up, and getting accepted to multiple four-year universities.

Luka Kuharic earned Student of the Month for consistently working ahead of pace, maintaining an excellent GPA, and arriving early to class.

-Kayla Hokanson & Alexis Buzzel

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STUDENT LIFE

Wow! March flew by and we can’t believe it’s already April. This past month we’ve been super busy on the residential side of things. Starting off with weekend activities, the first weekend we took students to Monster Jam at the Moda Center which was an absolute blast! Following Monster Jam, other activities included going to a rage rooms, night skiing at SkiBowl, trips to Sandy, and going to the aquatic center to do flips and tricks off the diving boards and high dive. Students have continued to maintain their cabins and keep them clean on a regular basis and in addition have been helping out with van cleaning on the weekends thus setting up athletics for the week with clean vans. Student representative meetings have been going well and students have been sharing constructive solutions with staff. During the week on campus students have been spending time in BOB, riding the jungle, hitting the dry slope and riding the trails in the backyard. Looking into march, we’ve got nationals for ski and snowboard in Colorado and right after we’ve got the senior beach trip. We are excited for the spring weather and more sunny days on campus!
-Netanya Beard, Luke Giacopelli, Levi "Vibe Coach" Thompson, Will Stephens & Barbara Edwards

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MOUNTAIN BIKE

March started with a trip down south to Windrock Bike Park for some park laps and racing at the Tennessee National. The team adjusted well to the new conditions in the previous week of riding and the team came home with 5 Wins! Eton Bravard won Junior Ex 15-16 in downhill, Brooke Anderson won Women’s Junior Ex and the Freestyle Jam’s Whipoff, Erin Bixler won Enduro, and Kahlil Kem won his downhill race in Cat 2-3 18 and under. We spent a week and a half at home where we shuttled Fear and Loaming in the coastal mountains and trained on some pump tracks for the upcoming event Sea Otter. We are stoked to be on the road again and have spent the last few days in Santa Cruz riding dirt jumps and getting a few laps on the surrounding trails of UC Santa Cruz. Sea Otter Updates to come!

–Asa Howe & Kevin Simpers

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SNOWBOARD

Greetings from the snowboard team!

This past month has been action packed and full of progression & execution on the mountain. We really dove into the philosophy of our “coaching triangle” with the team so that each person has a clearly defined focus for their day, week, and month. It starts with progression, then moves into execution, and finishes with reflection. In the world of action sports, this applies to almost everything that one is working towards accomplishing. For example, we had two USASA halfpipe events this past month, with only a few days to work on progression in the pipe before it was time for the team to execute on the day of the contests. Aaron, Joe, Arianna, Alessia, & Lyric all executed their game plans and walked away with 6 golds and 4 silvers collectively. That success can be directly attributed to the work they put in during our progression phase leading up to the events. The reflection piece can come immediately after an event, or in the days prior to a team trip to assess what contributed to their success, or what needs to happen next time to accomplish their goals if they fall short.

It isn’t only about contests though, because our team trips are also a big part of the execution phase of the triangle. 80% of the trick progression happens during training here locally in Oregon at Meadows or Timberline, when we are able to get the laps and repetition in a familiar park. The execution is when we are traveling and the kids are working on filming their tricks in new parks and on new features. It was really incredible to see that happen on our California trip! Boreal, Mammoth, and Kingvale had exactly what we needed to execute the work that the team has been putting in.

While on our last trip, we were able to create a very special experience for everyone to work with Mammoth’s terrain park staff, as they showed us what it takes to maintain their largest park on the mountain. This is something that Mammoth has never done before, so the kids really lucked out. The head terrain park manager and three other park staff took three to four kids each, gave them all their own rakes and went through the park top to bottom, demonstrating the proper way to maintain features. It was such a cool way for our kids to get hands on and see the features up close and personal before riding and filming on them. The Mammoth park staff were so blown away by the engagement with our crew that we will most certainly be doing something like this again! I’m happy to say that our California trip was an epic success.

Now, we are moving back into the progression phase of our training since for the USASA competitors, our nationals trip is right around the corner! It is going to be a jam packed week for those competing as practice and events are happening almost daily. For those that aren’t going to Nationals, training will be going on as usual here in Oregon with Jamie Weller, taking advantage of the spring conditions that are starting to get really good. Both Timberline and Meadows are crushing the game right now, giving us amazing parks to train in.

Thank you all for the support this year!

-Brandon Sorel & Jamie Weller

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FREESKI

We had a magnificent March here on the freeski team. Spring sprung early this year making for optimal training conditions. Between the soft snow, on campus airbag sessions and all around great vibes, progression was at an all-time high. With Nationals approaching, and the majority of the team competing, every student athlete has been leveling up and staying focused on their short and long term goals.

Our big mountain squad had a great trip to Winterpark Colorado for a two day double up IFSA event. Day one was spent skiing an epic inbounds cliff band where competitors made their way top to bottom through various obstacles. Day two after a 30 minute hike/skate off the top lift, we were lucky enough to be the first ever competitors on a new venue at Winterpark on "The Cirque". The venue was an open bowl riddled with cliffs and natural features allowing each athlete to take a unique line down the face. 

In addition to the Winterpark trip Topher and a handful of skiers from the team made their way to the second annual Tom Wallisch Steel City Showdown at Seven Springs, PA. This event was a high level rail jam competition where Pro and high level AM skiers competed on one of the most extreme rail setups to date. Two of our skiers made their way to finals competing against olympians and other pro skiers, we were honored to take home 4th and 5th place. 

Moving into April we are looking to keep the same momentum into the final weeks of the semester. Look out for our weekly updates to stay in tune with our plans. 

-Brian McCarthy & Topher Newett

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PTO UPDATES

Hello from The PTO! Moving forward, we will be adding a section in the newsletter highlighting PTO Meetings and updates.

The next PTO Meeting is happening Wednesday, April 13th at 6pm PST via Zoom. The Zoom Link info is posted below.

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85769937172?pwd=RlVrcWppcmpXWThFSkRpSzVWbldPUT09

We will be going over The PTO Charter (The PTO's Mission & Goals), Graduation and Staff Appreciation. We hope to see everyone there!
-Shannon Gander, Dave Gander, Melinda Ryan & Beth Straub

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GOOD IN THE WOODS 2022

Our Second Annual Fundraiser, Good In The Woods is happening once again on December 17th, 2022!

We are looking for donations to help us raise money towards tuition assistance.

Last year, we raised $82,000! With our $100,000 match in place, we are looking to exceed last year's total and continue to bring in new students from all around the world.

If you have items you would like to donate, please email Luke Giacopelli at Luke@wyeastacademy.com.

For more information, head to our Good In The Woods page on our website, https://wyeastacademy.com/good-in-the-woods

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HELP US IMPROVE!

We are always looking for ways to improve here at Wy'East Academy. We have created an online suggestion box for students and parents to fill out with their ideas. Click on this link here to send over your suggestions.

HEAD OF SCHOOL

Our students working with Active Motion Spine & Therapy

It is hard to believe that it is already March as all of our programs continue to travel around the country collecting content & stacking up medals. Students have been balancing out their time on the road with academics which has continued to yield results with more college acceptance letters coming in from Gonzaga, the University of Denver, George Fox, the University of Utah & Sierra Nevada University. Not only are these students being accepted to four year universities, many of them are receiving scholarship opportunities. The snow has continued to pile up on the mountain which is building up for an exciting summer so please make sure to reserve your dates if you are planning on joining us because space is limited. All of the students are back in the classrooms now in order to fully maximize their time on campus before they are back on the road. Both snow & mountain bike athletes are busy getting ready to compete against the best athletes in the country at their respective National Championships & we wish them all the best of luck. Graduation is just around the corner as well, so please keep an eye open for updates from Luke & Kayla with more details. Thank you for sharing these amazing kids with us!

-Mike Hanley

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ACADEMICS

February was a month full of trips.  Students worked towards completing all of their work for the duration of the trips before each departure.  Thankfully, Covid hospitalization numbers have decreased, and all students have returned to the classroom!  We are halfway through the semester now, so expect Midterm Report Cards in your email.

As a reminder, we are offering the SAT on campus during the school day: March 23rd.  Please reach out if you would like your student to take this standardized test and please supply your student with a graphing calculator well in advance.

This year we are also making a yearbook!  The Chief Editors are Kennedy Lamer and Mike Nilan.  Yearbook orders are due on April 4th.  A small portion of each yearbook purchase is a fundraiser for the academy, so multiple orders are encouraged.  Look out for order information next month.

Madison Weisman earned Student of the Month because she consistently works ahead of pace, is always punctual, and submits high quality work.

John-Michael Ajemian earned Student of the Month because he arrives early to class, he completes all work due before traveling, and his grades have been consistently improving. 

-Kayla Hoakenson & Alexis Buzzel

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STUDENT LIFE

This past month flew by. On the residential side of things we had a full schedule of weekend activities. Weekends have included bowling, thrift store shopping, rock climbing, hiking in the gorge, exploring downtown Hood River, laser tag, axe throwing and mini golf. In addition, students have been doing an excellent job keeping their cabins clean. Another exciting aspect of residential life is that students get to go night skiing up at SkiBowl once a week, which has been a blast! Night skiing at Skibowl includes the rope tow which has been an excellent place for students to take hot laps through the park. We have continued to hold weekly student representative meetings which has continued to be a place where students have continued to grow their leadership skills. Looking forward to this next month we have more exciting weekend activities planned and we are excited to continue to support students growth through people place and passion here at Wy’East Academy.

- Netanya Beard, Luke Giacopelli, Barbara Edwards, Will Stephens & Levi Thompson

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MOUNTAIN BIKING

Our trip to Bootleg Canyon, NV and Virgin Utah was one for the books! We saw multiple podiums in Bootleg with JT Fisher winning the Enduro race, Etan Bravard coming in 2nd in expert junior downhill, Erin Bixler getting 3rd in Enduro pro women, Jack Probasco and Curran Lawrence going 2nd and 3rd in Dual slalom, Erin Bixler and Brooke Anderson going 1st and 2nd in women's slalom, and Brooke taking 2nd in junior women's downhill. Adrian Betancourt saw huge improvements while out in Bootleg and ended up doing the most laps out of anyone. The team carried themselves well while there and the event coordinators were stoked to have us come race.
While in Virgin, the kids pushed themselves daily and we saw huge progression! Erin Bixler dropped into a chute that most riders would not even think of doing. She also conquered a chute that she attempted and crashed last time in Virgin and was able to stomp it. Quinn Kaluza was putting on a boosting clinic out there, jumping higher than all the kids on a left hip jump. Jack Probasco, Curran Lawrence, Harper Simon, Taylor Dunn, Etan Bravard, and Josh Hanson all saw huge improvements and received compliments from some of the top name freeride pros. They had a morning jump session with Reed Boggs and Jaxson Riddle. You may see some of these kids in an RV commercial on TV, as the director of a commercial took a few shots of the kids as they were riding!

Now we are off to crush it in Windrock!!-Asa Howe & Kevin Simpers

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SKATEBOARDING

We've been trying to get off campus and skate at least 2 days a week. Considering the winter season we've still been lucky enough to get some sunny sessions in which we've spent our time checking out some local DIY skateparks and other spots built by skateboarders. There's a lot of cool new spots popping up all around the city. One of our favorites is the PSU courts. The PSU courts is an old abandoned tennis court section that the school has been allowing skateboarders to build obstacles on and it's super fun! In addition, we've hit the usual go to skateparks and recently even got the invite to skate a friend of mine's private backyard bowl!

Besides having the option of skating BOB on rainy days we've still managed to get some grinds elsewhere like some covered parking garages that we recently found and a cool DIY parking lot under the 405 bridge. These spots have lots of curbs so the kids have been spending lots of energy working on different variations of slappy grinds as well as perfecting their ollies and manuals!

Last week we cruised out to Seattle for a quick three day trip. The weather was cold but was sunny and dry! We took I-5 north on the way up there and hit every park we could on the way! The next day some of the parks were a bit frosty so we started out at a coffee spot Madison wanted to check out. By 10.00 a.m. the parks were beginning to thaw out and skateboarding was back on! We skated several parks all throughout the day and ended it with a nice Pho dinner. The next morning we hit two of the new Seattle skateparks and then went and checked out this cool cupcake spot that was also on Madison's bucket list. One final stop to the South park skatepark before our voyage home. The South Park skatepark is absolutely insane. It was built to look like a Mayan calendar from the sky. Everything in the park is symmetrical and is much different than your average skatepark! In total we skated 12 skateparks in 3 days!

- Jamie Weller

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SNOWBOARDING

This past month for the snowboard team started and ended with some incredible trips, along with some major highlights here on campus in between! While we were up in Washington at the beginning of the month riding Snoqualmie, Mt. Baker, and Crystal, we stopped in Bellingham on the Western Washington University campus to get a feel for what life would be like if they decided to study there. That campus is nestled up on a hill overlooking the town with views of the ocean that are the quintessential Pacific Northwest. We also spent time in Seattle exploring Pike Place Market and taking the team up top of the space needle for sunset. That trip up to Washington had pretty much everything you could ask for in a short amount of time; creative and high energy park riding at Snoqualmie, challenging and intense terrain at Mt. Baker, then a perfect spring-like day at Crystal to finish it off. 

We then came home to Oregon and were greeted with more spring-like conditions that did not disappoint to prepare for the USASA slopestyle event happening just before heading out of town again on our Idaho & Utah trip. Everyone on the team has been upping their level of riding with trick progression, style and creativity, and it truly shows. Those who competed at the USASA slopestyle earned almost every gold and silver medal available to them, representing the academy in great fashion. I’m happy to say that everyone competing has also qualified for USASA Nationals in Colorado later this year and will battle it out with the other top ranking athletes in the country! 

We finished off the month on the road heading East with a stop at Bogus Basin in Idaho on our way to Salt Lake City. For those unfamiliar with Bogus, it is 45 minutes outside of Boise and now owns some of High Cascade’s classic park features. It was very cool to show the team a new resort that has features with such history. Our time in Utah was spent going between Woodward Park City, and Brighton; both resorts offered some of the best terrain for our team to ride. From an athletic standpoint, the Idaho and Utah trip was very productive as almost everyone was taking full advantage of filming and creating social content in these new places. The team also saw the locations of the University of Utah campus, and Westminster College while in Salt Lake. Quite possibly the biggest highlight of the trip was when our crew was invited to get a behind the scenes tour of The Bomb Hole Podcast studio to see how and where that show is produced! The kids got to sit in the booth, in the same seats that snowboarding icons and legends have previously been, and get a feel for what it’s like to be a part of the biggest podcast in the industry. The opportunities that we’ve been able to create this year have been pretty spectacular and this team is lucky to have the support system that they do. 

-Brandon Sorel

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FREESKIING

February was an epic ride on the Freeski Team. We were blessed with endless sunshiny days throughout the whole month making for ideal training and leveling up. Brian and I divided and conquered most of the month with some of the team in Colorado and the rest of the crew here in Oregon. 

The Colorado squad spent a week in Aspen training and competing on the X Games course getting first hand experience on the exact course you see on TV. Following Aspen was the third stop of the Futures Tour at Copper Mountain. The week at Copper was filled with plenty of time on bigger jumps and the whole team skied great and put down solid runs where 3 of the 5 made it to finals. 

For the crew in Oregon we maximized our days on the volcano putting in reps on the core  fundamentals while having progression at the forefront of our daily mission.  Utilizing our trampolines and campus airbag students were able to safely attempt some new tricks before taking them to snow. The consistent sunny weather gave us forgiving slushy snow conditions making for even more progression for the whole team. We did a Wy’East Academy FIRST, where we spent an entire day on hill starting at Timberline then Meadows and then ended the day at the Skibowl ropetow park. The smiles were wide and the legs were burning by the end. 

Towards the end of the month we competed in a local USASA double up SlopeStyle Event at Meadows where nearly the whole team ended up on the podium in their specific age group. After the event at Meadows we made our way to Bogus Basin in Idaho for a content creation trip. We got a nice mix of sun and snow and conquered both the park and the entire mountain as a team. We even got to hit a fun street spot for everyone to try their hand at landing some tricks out of the park. Moving into March the team camaraderie is at an all-time high and we couldn’t be happier to see what lies ahead for everyone.

-Topher Newett & Brian McCarthy

Our very own Nick Goepper took home his third Olympic Medal this past week. Nick took home the silver medal for Freeski Slopestyle in Bejing. Nick previously took home a bronze in 2014 in Sochi & a Silver medal during the 2018 games in Pyeong Chang

The Indiana native was a student here at Wy’East Academy from 2010-2012, where he was coached by our current Head of School, Mike Hanley.

“Nick Goepper has gone to three Olympics & has come home with three Olympic medals. Athletes, judges & coaches all over the world know that you can never bet against him putting down a podium run when it counts. We are all looking forward to seeing Nick back out here in Oregon this summer“ , Says Hanley.

Congrats Nick!

HEAD OF SCHOOL

With all of the chaos happening around the world, it has been wonderful getting to see all of the students back on campus. Our students have already hit the road this semester with many more trips to come, but it has been amazing to watch the progress as all of our students. College applications have continued to go out with more acceptance letters coming in by the day. College application deadlines are rapidly approaching as is the deadline for signing up for the SAT, so please make sure to get registered. Our Student Representative meetings have now moved on to the next step where the students are running their own internal meetings prior to the weekly meetings which has led to increased communication between staff & students. We have had a stretch of perfect weather out here in Oregon, but the snow is set to return in the upcoming weeks so things are shaping up for a great summer. Space is very limited for the summer semester so please make sure to speak with Dan as soon as possible to save your spot. Thank you so much for trusting us with your wonderful children. They have continued to supersede our expectations & we are all looking forward to the helping them reach their goals.

-Mike Hanley

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ACADEMICS

Academics are off to a great start. This semester we freshened up the classrooms by adding new decor and some alternative seating options. We also converted a portion of one of the classrooms to a hangout area for students after their scheduled school hours–this space includes a ping pong table, couch, and TV. That being said, with the Covid numbers being so high this month, as a precaution we decided to have students work on school in their cabins.

This semester, we are offering the SAT on campus during the school day: March 23rd. Please reach out if you would like your student to take this standardized test and please supply your student with a graphing calculator. We are also transporting students to a nearby high school for the ACT; please reach out if you would like to register your student for that exam.

With students going on so many trips this semester, we are advising students to strive to be two weeks ahead in all of their classes. Last semester students finished the term with a school average GPA of 3.62—our highest average yet. Currently the average is 3.67. Keep up the excellent work, students!

Joe Medley earned Student of the Month because of his academic performance: consistently ahead of pace paired with a perfect GPA, punctuality, and positive disposition.

Etan Bravard earned Student of the Month because of his positive attitude, his efforts to set and meet SMART goals, and his hard work getting ahead of pace in all of his classes.

–Kayla Hokanson & Alexis Buzzell

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STUDENT LIFE

With our first month of winter term in the books we couldn’t be more excited for what’s in store for this next month. January here at Wy’East Academy went by very quickly. We started the term with welcoming our newest staff member Barbara Edwards as life coach. Barbara joins us from Colorado following graduating from college with a degree in journalism and English.

As the kids have settled in to life back on campus we have added some new and exciting things to the schedule. First, we have been taking students to Skibowl on Wednesday nights for night skiing and this has been a hit. It’s been exciting for all residential staff to be able to ride with the students on the mountain. Another new and exciting piece for winter term is the cabin point system where students earn points for keeping their cabin clean and the cabin with the most points every two weeks is awarded a van reservation for an evening to go wherever they would like. We are incredibly excited about the hard work that students are putting in on a daily basis in keeping their cabins clean.

In regards to weekend activities, we have had the chance to go paint balling, go to a driving range, and students attempted three different escape rooms. We are looking forward to many more exciting activities in the upcoming months. In addition, our student representatives have been working closely with staff in coming up with solutions and ideas for things to add to campus life. Lastly, we’ve taken countless videos so don’t hesitate to check out our social media sites for updates of what life on campus looks like.

-Netanya Beard, Luke Giacopelli, Barbara Edwards, Levi Thompson & Will Stephens

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FREESKIING

Greeting Freeski Families!

With the first month of second semester in the books it’s safe to say the Freeski Squad is firing on all cylinders! We had an amazing time at Mammoth starting out the semester with the entire team on a trip, and putting some days on our IKON passes. Weather wise we could not have been luckier with a bluebird sunny California week! Mammoth had a plethora of parks and features that suited the needs of everyone on the team. We saw a lot of progression all around and it’s safe to say the trip was a huge success!

January brought the first competitions of the season from the local level to the national level. All of the training has been paying off and our athletes are cashing in that hard work for medals and spots on the podium! With more events on the horizon we are keeping the crew sharp with simulated event warm up blocks and contest scenarios!

We are siked for what the rest of second semester has in store for the crew!

-Brian "Breezy" McCarthy & Christopher "Topher" Newett

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SNOWBOARDING

Hello to all the parents out there!

The snowboard team has had a pretty incredible first month of second semester here in Oregon and it’s safe to say that we’re off to a great start. We’ve been training daily with a healthy mix between Timberline & Meadows, and even getting some riding in under the lights at Skibowl (provided their cabins are clean, ofcourse). It’s so good to have the park crew at all three resorts working as hard as they are to create a variety of jumps, rails, rollers, creative features, and everything in between for the kids to push themselves on. Our focus has mainly been on fundamental trick progression and style, which was put on display at the 2 USASA Rail Jam events, and the 2 USASA Slopestyle events that happened at Meadows over MLK Weekend. I’m very proud to announce that as a team, we took home every gold and silver medal up for grabs! Big shouts to Ben, Arianna, Alessia, Willie, Joe, Lyric, and Kennedy for showing up and representing the team. In total, they earned 18 Golds, 4 Silvers, 1 Bronze, and a bunch of prizes from the contest sponsors.

Having those contests in the middle of the month gave some perspective on areas for improvement when it comes to putting together judged runs on a full slopestyle course. For many, it’s learning to link spins in different directions (frontside spin into a backside spin) and having switch tricks on command for both rails and jumps. These events seem to have given the crew more motivation to work through the uncomfortable tricks, which will help to prepare them for a bigger stage when they compete at USASA Nationals in Colorado! I must say, are riding faster, smoother, consistently raising the bar, and are turning heads every day at the mountain.

-Brandon Sorel & Jamie Weller

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MOUNTAIN BIKING

Mountain Bike has had a great January that was surprisingly full of sun! Lots of riding and training went down and we are prepared for our trip to Nevada and Utah. While down there we plan on competing at Bootleg Canyon in DH, Enduro, and Dual Slalom, while the freeride kids get to ride some of the crazy skateparks Las Vegas has to offer. After Nevada, we plan on driving 2 hours east to Virgin, Utah for a week of riding with pros, shuttling, and sessioning old rampage zones. Video and photos of our trip to come!

-Asa Howe & Kevin Simpers

Good In The Woods: A Fundraising Celebration is going down Friday, December 17th at Nemo Design! Our friends at The Portland Society Page wrote up an article about our event. Click the link below to check it out!

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Portland, OR. Wy’East Mountain Academy is an outdoor-oriented, action sports academy designed to develop students in the classroom as well as in the outdoors. The organization is launching a nonprofit foundation to . . . Click to read full article.

November Newsletter 2021

The Academy crew hanging at our booth at Snowvana in Portland

Letter from The Head of School

Hanley sharing his wisdom with The Freeskiers

November has been a month full of transitions. We were all excited to see Mount Hood covered in snow & all of our snow athletes made the most of it building jumps & jibs to stack up epic footage. But then we were equally as sad to see it all wash away with nearly a foot of rain. On a brighter note, our seniors began receiving acceptance letters to universities all over the United States with Madison & Lorena both receiving academic scholarships! Congratulations to the students who completed the SAT & PSAT as they are a daunting obstacle to overcome that will help prepare you for the rigors of life ahead. The students’ average GPA’s are balancing out as students head into the end of the semester & our average scores for the PSAT & SAT went up by almost 100 points. Our snow athletes started the month with an intensive Wilderness First Aid Course on campus where we partnered with NOLS to get them all WFA certified. Our mountain bikers went on trips to Bellingham, WA in addition to Virgin, UT while the snow athletes headed north to chase the snow to the Yukon Territory in Canada. We will continue the “Coffee with the Head of School” until student departure on December 18th & all are welcome to attend. Please make sure to get all of your departure information in to Netanya as soon as possible so we can arrange transportation accordingly. Thank you & Happy Holidays!

-Mike Hanley

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Academics

We partnered with NOLS and delivered a Wilderness First Aid class for our students.

November has been an exciting month. Each team was able to travel and students did a great job getting ahead in their classes before departing campus.

We are happy to announce that Madison Weisman was accepted into the Nursing Program at George Fox University and Lorena Kelley was accepted to Sierra Nevada University and Western Colorado University. Congratulations Madison and Lorena!

The end of the semester is nearly here. Students have been working hard to complete projects and prepare for their upcoming exams. Classes will close on December 16th and final Report Cards will be sent out to families on December 17th. With the end of the semester approaching, we are encouraging students to revise work and improve their grades. We are also working with students to finalize winter semester coursework plans.

Alexis Buzzell chose Anders Chapman for student of the month for his positive attitude, being ahead in his classes, and asking for help when needed.

Asa Howe chose Lorena Kelley for student of the month for being caught up in her classes and earning a 3.9 GPA for the semester.

-Alexis Buzzell & Asa Howe

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Student Life

This past month has been an exciting and busy one here at the Academy. This time of year always feels the longest because everyone is just waiting for the snow to arrive. On the residential side of things we planned out several exciting, action packed, and fun filled weekends. We started off the month with having all the mountain bikers clean their vans from the Bellingham trip, probably one of the most memorable experiences of fall term. Following cabin and van cleaning, students had the opportunity to shop at some local thrift stores in Sandy as well as stock up on snacks from Fred Meyers. The second weekend of November was my personal favorite, we took all the students paint-balling! First game we played, was Zombies, where we split up to staff versus students, where the students guarded an enclosure with a post in the middle, and the goal of the zombies (staff) was to shoot the students to turn them into zombies and make it to the middle of the guarded enclosure and win the game by touching the post. Staff (zombies) won the first game. Since we did a private group for paintball we got to play several other types of paintball games in different outdoor arenas, students and staff had a blast and we will definitely be playing paintball again during winter term. In addition to paintball, we also took the students to the Oregon Zoo which was followed up with thrift store shopping in Portland. Every year right before the snow falls, SNOWVANA happens at the Oregon Convention center and Luke was able to secure tickets for all of the students. The students enjoyed hitting the mini ramp that the Academy had set up at the convention. On the way back to campus from Snowvana as requested by the students, we once again went thrift store shopping in Portland as well as stopping at Fred Meyers in Sandy on the way back. In addition to weekend activities, during the week students have been doing a good job with daily cabin cleaning and student representative meetings have been productive. A huge shoutout to the continued support and communication from all of the Parents, and we are excited about the upcoming weekend activities for December!

-Netanya Beard, Luke Giacopelli, Levi Thompson, Will Stephens & Dakoda Osusky

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Mountain Bike

The Mountain Bike Program at Wy'East Academy has carried on the success we had in the previous month. Students are forming strong bonds together and are progressing both on and off the bike. This group has amazing kids that each bring something different to the table and it has been a lot of fun to watch them learn from each other and grow. Best part of all, they are having fun while doing so.

This past month featured a lot of rain with the atmospheric river we were in which was an opportunity for us to get the struggle in. Being wet and uncomfortable has strengthened the team's mental fortitude. If we can endure terrible situations, think of what we can do when conditions are good. Which brings to light our trip to Bellingham which teased the sun but brought a lot of rain. We made the most out of the situation and even had sessions on the different trails up at Galbraith Mountain. The crew was soaked with smiles! 

We are happy with the team environment and look forward to the upcoming month.
 

-Kevin Simpers & Dakoda Osusky

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Snowboard

November started out with a very special offering that most of the on-snow crew were able to participate in. NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) came onto our campus to put on a private Wilderness First Aid course over two days to teach the basics for when injuries happen away from immediate care. This class hopefully helped prepare our crew for the inevitable that we will either experience personally, or be a first to respond to. 

A week or so after the WFA course we were able to get back on snow to build some jumps, slide some rails, and film some clips. Almost everyone walked away from our two little sessions with some photos and videos to start the season. Even though the snow was short lived, we’ve been able to mix in skating indoors and even outside when weather permits. We ramped up training on the dryslope facilities as well to be ready for Canada!

The Yukon trip couldn’t have come at a better time since everyone had the itch to get on snow, and I’m happy to report that we did just that. It was full-on winter up there with cold temps, white snowy mountains, a rope tow rail park, and an X-games size big air jump. A highlight for everyone was that Olympian, Mark McMorris, and US Olympic prospect, Brock Crouch were up there training on the same rails and jump as our crew. It was very cool to see the interactions happening between some big name professionals and our kids. We certainly put in the reps on the rope tow rails everyday we were there, pushing for new tricks & social media posts. I’m happy to say that Arianna, Alessia, and Ben pushed past their fear of the big jump and were able to get some reps on that under the lights, with private snowmobile laps! 

We certainly look forward to getting the season started in Oregon with snow in the near future, fingers crossed that Timberline and Meadows are able to start spinning lifts very soon. Until then, we will be working on the dryslope, the skatepark, and getting these kids set for their final exams.

-Brandon Sorel & Jamie Weller

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Freeski

November has been quite the month for the Freeski team! Early on we got some good snow that allowed us to get up on the mountain a handful of times. We hiked up two 10’ PVC tubes and created a handful of unique and interesting set ups to get our ski legs back under us and enjoy some of the first sessions of the season! We have stayed on the grind in the gym, the trampolines, and on the dry slope. Remediating weaknesses, pushing progression, and keeping our focus on our on-snow camp to the Yukon. Our trip up to the great white north was a great white success! Although Mt. Sima came up a bit short on having a jump line ready for us, but that didn't slow us down at all. They're jib set up on the rope tow, and the big air site were world class and proved to be extremely productive with everyone walking away with some new learns! Now that we are back in OR we are all doing our snow dances and hoping that the lifts start turning soon, but in the meantime we are focusing on academics and ending this semester strong!

-Brian McCarthy & Topher Newett

October 2021 Newsletter

Parents Weekend 2021 was a success!

Letter from The Headmaster

Hanley hanging out with The Freeskiers

It is hard to believe that October has already come & gone. The mountains are starting to turn white all around the world & our students have been making the most of the changing seasons with trips to California, Washington & Canada. Students hit the books hard to prepare for both the PSAT & SAT while the older students have been sending out college applications all around the world. Many of our students had the opportunity to begin campus tours at two of the most prestigious universities in North America at McGill in Quebec, Canada & the University of Southern California. Even I hit the road again to attend a training camp in Austria to stay in the mix with the best skiers & snowboarders in the world working towards the upcoming Winter Olympics. Our student body has continued to grow with the recent addition of several new students with many more expected for the winter semester. It was a highlight for all of us to get the parents out here on campus for parents weekend & the bar has been set higher than ever before for next year. We are all looking forward to the upcoming winter season & thank you for your continued support.

-Mike Hanley

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Academics

October has been quite a busy month for Wy’East Academy, starting with trips across all sports to 3 different locations in North America. Mountain bike drove down to Laguna Seca, California to race at the Sea Otter Classic, while Snowboard flew to southern California to enjoy the great skateparks and some surfing. Ski flew to Canada to train on a world class airbag where the kids were able to land all sorts of new tricks.  Even with all of the intense traveling, students were able to stay on track academically and keep their grades up! This has proved tough to do in the past and it is great to see everyone getting used to doing school on the road/skies. Since then, we have proctored PSAT and SAT tests and scores will be back come middle of November. We have also helped our seniors and juniors apply to colleges they are interested in attending and should be hearing back from these institutions soon! 

Asa Howe chose Joseph Mantis for student of the month because of his determination to get caught up and his huge grade improvements over the month of October.
 

Alexis Buzzell chose Aidan Parish for student of the month because he uses class time wisely and was able to get his grades up before his quarter ended.  

-Asa Howe & Alexis Buzzell

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Student Life

Students hanging with Academy Alumni & Professional Skiier Nick Geopper

This past month has been an exciting one! We started the month off with mountain bikers at the Sea Otter Classic, skaters and snowboarders went down to California and the skiers traveled all the way to Canada to train big air tricks on a landing bag. During this time on campus residential staff supported students with packing, unpacking, cleaning and worked closely with academics to plan study halls in the evenings to help students keep up with school.

Following these exciting trips, Parents weekend was a blast! It was great to meet parents and families and share with everyone a day in the life of an Wy’East Academy student. Other weekend activities this month have included several trips to local thrift stores, Fredy Meyer runs, Sandy Food Carts, and even going to the local cinema to catch a movie. In addition, this past weekend on Saturday we went to a haunted house called “Stalls of Terror,” everyone had an amazing time. The following day we went to a pumpkin patch with the idea of picking out pumpkins to carve back on campus, however all the students were more interested in the Dark Maze and the apple launcher slingshot. It was extremely entertaining watching the students work together to see how far they could launch apples and trying to hit the targets. The students had so much fun with the apple launcher that the staff at the farm allowed the students to have extra apples to launch.

On the topic of cleanliness, all the students have been working hard with keeping their cabins clean and are expected to clean their cabins every day prior to evening activities. Staff has been incredibly helpful with supporting students with cleaning as well as teaching them effective ways to keep their cabin clean. Watching all the students build healthy habits such as getting up on time each morning, picking up their cabins and recycling has been great to watch. Furthermore, the student representatives have been consistently showing up to weekly meetings with ideas and solutions. As staff we have been working closely with the student representatives to have a group hang out area with games and activities. So far, we have a ping pong table, couches and a TV with plenty of movies to choose from. In the evenings afters cabin cleaning and study hall, students have been enjoying playing ball tag in BOB.

The Residential staff would like to thank all the parents for their continued open communication, feedback and support. Thank you! We are looking forward to another exciting month as well as the beginning of the arrivals of several of our winter students.

-Netanya Beard, Luke Giacopelli, Will Stephens & Levi Thompson

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Freeski

First Day On Hill!

What a nice month of training we have had on the Freeski team! First off we want to say thank you to all the parents that made it out for Parents Weekend. It was great to get some face time with you and let you get a glimpse into the world your kids are now living in! Winter has been showing its face a bit already allowing us to get some time on snow. Every student was able to wipe off some dust and get a couple tricks under their belt on the features we made collectively as a school on Mt Hood. With more snow in the future we have our fingers crossed that the lifts will start spinning soon! Throughout our daily sessions we have been ramping up the intensity with our sights set to our upcoming on-snow camp at Mt. Sima. We have created simulated competitions on the trampolines and dry slope features and have seen a success with everyone being being in that "competition" mind set. They say competition creates quality, and we believe that translates beyond skiing and into everyday life! We hope everyone had a great Halloween, and we look forward to connecting with everyone soon!

-Brian McCarthy & Topher Newett

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Mountain Bike

A very successful trip to Sea Otter! We had all Students landed in the Top half of the competition field at Sea Otter, JT, Etan, Erin, Brooke all hit podiums. While at Sea Otter all students used the opportunity to talk to sponsors and network within the community. The presence that was carried at this event was amazing to be part of as we felt like we had one of the most recognizable teams there. The dirt was challenging but our students rose to the occasion and made opportunity out of obstacles.

We are most proud that we really have a unified team with everyone hanging out and supporting one another. Turning weaknesses into strengths, showing up on time, finding stride in the rhythm of living on your own which has been so great watch everyone grow daily with their own accountability. Some students have gone through the process to start using the Gym on their own which they are very excited to have access on their own time.

We ventured over into Capital Forrest this month and found that it is a great double day trip opportunity for us. The Lumberyard as well is a good rainy day in door option to get out & off campus. We are in a reflection faze of training so we have been using time at campus to stay on top of or get ahead in school work and working on our weaknesses. Everyone is excited about the Bellingham trip coming up!

Thank you,
Kevin Simpers & Dakoda Osusky

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Snowboard

It’s hard to believe that less than a month ago we were down in sunny Southern California posted up in Newport Beach in the midst of an oil spill. As eerie as it was to see the beaches completely empty of patrons but full of clean up crews outfitted in hazmat suits, we made the absolute best of it. We did a college visit, two different industry tours, surfed a day in La Jolla shores, skated seven different parks, and genuinely got a taste of what Southern California can offer our crew. A huge thank you goes out to the US Sales Manager at Volcom for rolling out the red carpet for our squad with all the product he generously gave everyone. We then got the open invitation to skate our hearts out in their private indoor park. I feel like the bar was raised each day we were there, going from a good start, to a great trip, to an unforgettable experience. Another big thank you goes out to the Kelley’s for taking the kids out on a sunset boat cruise and hosting us on our last day for brunch and a swim!

Once we got back on campus and into our training routine for the month, we were only here for 5 days before the first snow fell on Mt. Hood, allowing us to get up there to take full advantage of the real stuff! The crew was so excited to get on snow and get creative with what we had to work with setting up a few different rails and a concrete block feature. So far we’ve been up three times and are very much looking forward to when we are consistently able to be up there. Currently, we have our sights set on training for the Yukon by utilizing the dry slope to dial in the rail game along with the airbag jump to prepare to be on real jumps in just a few weeks. To keep things from getting too repetitive, Jamie and I have been able to get the kids out skating at a few different local parks here in Oregon between the rain storms.

-Brandon Sorel & Jamie Weller

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Good In The Woods: A Fundraising Celebration

A fundraising celebration hosted by the Wy'East Mountain Academy
Come join us FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17TH, 2021 in Portland, Oregon for our first annual Good in the Woods, fundraising celebration.

Our goal is to bring families and supporters together for an incredible evening to celebrate our new 501c3 not-for-profit status and to raise $50,000 in scholarship funds so we may extend the incredible Wy’East Mountain Academy experience to more students. To help reach our goal, we have a Penny for Penny match on all proceeds raised enabling YOU to double your positive impact!

Hosted by Nemo Design, the evening will feature:
-Unique silent bid items, including; snowboarding & skiing gear, IKON pass, photography by Kevin Zacher, signed skateboard deck by Tony Hawk, airline tickets, and much more…Music & local craft beers and wines
-Art show
-Fun activities
-Meet renowned action sports athletes & industry moguls
-And much more…
7PM - CLOSE Party, Raffles, & Silent Auctions
Your $20.00 ticket includes 1 adult beverage and 1 raffle ticket. Additional raffle tickets can be purchased upon entry.
Please help support our mission of Life Improvement Through People, Place, and Passion.
Ways you can contribute:
-Buy tickets
-Donate auction items
-Volunteering
-Event sponsorships

Please email luke@wyeastacademy.com if you are interested in donating, volunteering, or becoming a sponsor for the event.

New & Notable at Wy’East Academy

2021-2022

Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year! As we move forward, we would like to highlight all of our campus upgrades & introduce our new staff to our community.

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Campus Upgrades

Camping Sites

On your next Campus visit, we invite you to stay in the new campground. Built and operated by our founding donors at We Are Camp, the sites will be hosted by on campus dweller, Jim Hanseder, parent of a 7th grade student at Wy’East. The “Roamer Sites,” as we call them, feature adventure rig (#VanLife, #RoamerRig, #RVlife) site with water and electric hookups. Also featured are incredible canvas platform tents with boot dryers and cell phone chargers. Click to view the Hip Camp listing!

Mountain Bike Trails

With a generous donation of time and money from Milepost 35, the staff, along with Cam Zink’s private builder, spent days on end reworking our current trail system and adding several upgrades. Led by our very own Asa Howe, they reworked several of our trails including Endor & Send It Randy. In addition to the trail upgrades, Asa's crew built a 3 pack of jumps at the base of our trail system.

Dry Slope Jib Line New Layout

Our coaches gave the Dry Slope Jib Line a bit of a facelift. They completely switched out the right line, starting off with a down rail, which leads you into a mailbox rail. This new setup gives our athletes a proper advanced line for kids to take their tricks to the next level!

Bouldering Wall Facelift

We have given our Indoor Rock Climbing wall a complete facelift. Our Dean of Students Netanya Beard took the initiative and completely switched up the entire wall. There are several new roots for our students to try out!

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New Faces

Netanya Beard

Dean of Students

Netanya Beard completed her Bachelors degree in Psychology at the University of Oregon in 2017 before pursuing a Masters degree in Psychology and Systems Neuroscience in 2019. During her time in college she worked for a nonprofit supporting youth struggling with mental health. In addition, she held a position in a research lab studying the auditory cortex and its underlying neural circuitry. Complementing her clinical experience, Beard spent her summers mentoring undergraduate students at the University of Oregon as part of the summer program for undergraduate research. Furthermore, she worked putting together a weeklong neuroscience course for high school students who attended Oregon Young Scholars Program (OYSP). After receiving her Master’s Degree in Psychology she moved to Portland, Oregon where she had the opportunity to work for Youth Villages as a family intervention specialist for high risk youth and their families. "Along with working with youth and families, skiing, rock climbing and the outdoors are strong passions of mine and I can’t think of a more perfect place than Wy’East Academy to continue my career!"

Alexis Buzzell

Teacher

 Alexis graduated from the prestigious Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2020 with a Bachelors in Physics and Masters in Mechanical Engineering. While in school she worked in an optical spectroscopy lab conducting research on new materials for solar energy applications. During the pandemic last year, she ended up taking a job as a physics teacher at a local high school and enjoyed her time so much she decided that's what she wanted to continue her career doing. In her spare time, you can catch Alexis ripping up the local mountain on her snowboard.

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Familiar Faces, New Places

Elijah Teter

Athletic Director

We would like to welcome in Elijah Teter on his new role as Athletic Director! Over the past 30 years, Elijah Teter has done it all in snowboarding and has done so with excellence. Formerly a professional snowboarder and member of the US Snowboard team, Elijah went on to be a highly successful Olympic coach, helping to secure three gold and two silver medals while working with athletes such as Ayumu Hirano, Kaitlyn Farrington, Louie Vito, Hannah Teter, and Kazu Kokubo. " I am excited to share my passion of athletics with everyone. With our teams, with our coaches, with our students & with our parents. My goal is to make Wy’East Academy the premiere action sports academy in the world."

Brandon Sorel

Director of Snowboarding

Entering his 6th year with us at Wy'East Academy, Brandon is taking over as the Director of Snowboarding. Brandon comes to us with a Bachelor of Arts in Interdiscinplary Studies for Business and outdoor adventure. leadership from Sierra Nevada University. Brandon is excited to help take the snowboard program to the next level.

September Newsletter

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Head of School

September is arguably the best month of the year in the Pacific Northwest. Wy’East Academy is now up & running for our 13th year with one of our largest student bodies ever. One of the biggest changes from last year is that the Academy is now a single cohort which has been a total gamechanger for staff & students. Our new staff members Netanya Beard (Dean of Students), Alexis Buzzell (Teacher), Kevin Simpers (MTB Director), Dakoda Osusky (MTB Coach/Residential), Will Stephens (Residential), Joshua Kozuma (Cook) & Jim Hanseder (Maintenance) have all done an amazing job acclimating to our dynamic environment. All of the students have been making the most out of the sunny weather while also working hard in the classroom ahead of a busy semester of upcoming tests & travel. Our new weekly Coffee with the Head of School has been a fun opportunity to open up communication between the administration & parents this year & we look forward to seeing parents every Tuesday at 11AM PST. Parents weekend is coming up soon so please RSVP for October 15-17 so we can hold a spot for you. Thank you for your support & partnership in preparing this amazing batch of young adults for the road ahead.

-Mike Hanley

Hanley took some time to work with The Freeskiers in the gym

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Academic

Fall is here and the students have been getting back into the swing of things! Our new students have been getting acclimated to their Edgenuity classes. Students have been crushing it, with many getting ahead in their classes to prepare for the upcoming trips this October. The PSAT and SAT will be held on campus during class time next month for the students who have signed up. We will be holding a practice PSAT during the last week of September to help students prepare. 

Alexis Buzzell chose Kade Kaluza for Student of the Month because he uses class time wisely by working hard to get ahead and asking questions when needed. 

Asa Howe chose Harper Simon for Student of the Month because he has low idle times on Edgenuity and shows up to class prepared and ready to work hard.
 

-Alexis Buzzell & Asa Howe

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Student Life

Hey Families,
It’s hard to believe that we are already one month into the school year. All the students have settled and moved into their cabins. We have been lucky to have lots of sunny days on campus which has led to countless days of skating and biking in the sun. There has been, and continues to be an exceptional amount of positive energy between students and staff. This year we have welcomed two new residential staff members, Will and Dakoda. It has been inspiring to watch both Will and Dakoda engage, support and ride with the students during the week and on weekends.

In addition, we would also like to introduce the elected student representatives; Jonathan Fisher, William Ryan, Arianna Vergani, and Shiloh Greenfield. We have been holding student representative meetings on Fridays and students have come to the meetings prepared with ideas and solutions. We are excited to continue to support our students in sharing their ideas and helping them grow as leaders.

Every Sunday afternoon, each and every student has been deep cleaning their cabins. It has been really awesome to see our students stepping up to this responsibility and working together as a team to clean their rooms and cabins each weekend. In addition to spending weekends deep cleaning, catching up on school work, and relaxing we have also had a scheduled weekend activity with the goal of taking students off campus and experiencing the wonders that the Pacific Northwest has to offer. So far we have taken students to several different skateparks each with their own unique features, as well as a hike in the Columbia River Gorge. Other weekend activities include trips to Sandy for thrift shopping and lunch at the Sandy Food Carts & exploring downtown Hood River.

We would like to thank all of our parents for their continued support, communication and being a part of the Wy’East family. Lastly, of important note to all parents, PTO meetings are scheduled on the second Wednesday of each month. We have been excited to see new faces at recent meetings and look forward to welcoming additional parents. Thank you!

-Netanya Beard, Luke Giacopelli, Levi Thompson, Dakoda Oshusky & Will Stephens

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Freeski

Greeting Freeski Families,

What a great first month we have had on the Freeski Team. From day one the squad has been driven and stoked to progress. We have been grinding core workouts, stretching, yoga and daily meditation. Each athlete has certainly shown growth in their flexibility and strength already. In addition to all the strength and flexibility training we have had countless progressive trampoline sessions working on fundamentals and the root of each trick whether big or small. Each athlete has set out detailed, realistic and attainable goals for our upcoming trip to Maximize in Montreal, Canada. In preparation for the trip we typically spend a decent amount of time on the trampolines before taking those tricks to our campus airbag where we can work out any additional kinks in their goals. We also have had some great progression on our dry slope rail setup. Each athlete has really been able to wipe off the dust on their tricks and check of some new ones along the way. Our first surf trip of the semester was a success with many kids catching their first waves, flipping down the sand dunes or playing spikeball on the beach! Needless to say, the team camaraderie is at an all time high and we are very excited for what lies ahead this year with a solid team from all around the world

  All the best,
Brian "Breezy" McCarthy & Topher Newett

The Freeski squad had a blast in Pacific City!

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Snowboard

Welcome parents, friends, and students to the first of many monthly newsletters! On behalf of the snowboarding team, I’m so proud to report that September was nothing short of amazing, and how happy I am to have the crew back together with a few new faces! We have such a solid and talented bunch of young adults bringing contagious energy to training every day. For those of you who aren’t fully aware, I’ve combined coaching forces with the Academy’s most experienced skateboarding legend, Jamie Weller. Since every single person on the team has a desire to progress in both snowboarding and skateboarding, it has been an absolute pleasure exposing our team to the knowledge that Jamie has in the skateboarding world. Not only that, but Jamie is also responsible for creating and building everything that they are skating on campus. And I mean everything!

Something else new for this year, now that we’ve made it past the strict protocols of small cohorts, is we have been training as much as possible in a big group of the “on snow” athletes to get as much cross-over coaching techniques as possible. These kids are getting input from Brian “Breezy” McCarthy, our Director of Skiing, and Christopher “Topher” Newett, our assistant ski coach and social media marketing guru, which makes for a pretty stacked team of coaches!

As far as our specific training highlights go for the first month, we have everyone grinding on the dry slope facilities, pushing limits, and learning new tricks almost daily. For some, learning the fundamentals of proper board control and gaining the confidence to drop into the big air jump for the first time, for others working on tricks like switch front blunt same way, or hardway cab 270 backlip 270 out, and everything in between. (Those tricks are about as insane as they sound). To piggyback the progression on the dry slope, the skateboarding skill level is rising just as quickly! We’ve already been surfing on the coast, skating in Hood River, and taking advantage of the top tier training facilities that we call home. My goal is to keep this momentum going for the entire school year. I absolutely love what I’m seeing from the crew so far, and as always want to thank you all for supporting us as we continue to shape the lives of your children. 

    Wishing each of you all the best,

Brandon Sorel & Jamie Weller

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Mountain Bike

We are stoked on how the Mountain Bike Program has been so far! The energy of the team has been incredible. The group we have this year is one of the most well rounded teams you can have. There are students that are skilled in racing, jumping, and riding the skatepark. With this team, there will be a lot of learning and growth that happens this year. The students are feeding off each other's energy and the progression has already begun. 

The feedback we got for the students about the trail work we did over the summer has been awesome to hear. This has motivated us to work on building new features in the backyard to give the students more opportunity to gain new skills. The students have been taking note of our work and have been putting in work on their own features & trails. In addition to the trail work, we have established a relationship with Dan Shell. Dan is a mobile bike mechanic who is willing to come up and work on the students bikes. We are talking to Dan about coming up one day during the week to go over basic bicycle maintenance with the students. 

Sea Otter is almost upon us and everyone is looking forward to the event. We are excited for this event as we have students racing among different events, categories, and age groups. The students have been working on their resumes for Sea Otter and we've been encouraging them to check out the list of sponsors at the event whom they'd want to talk to.

-Kevin Simpers & Dakoda Oshusky

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Parents Weekend

Our annual Parents Weekend is coming up! Come join us on campus from October 15-17th for a weekend of fun. If you are looking for somewhere to stay, we have availability in our new Roamer Sites to stay on campus. Please RSVP with Luke at luke@wyeastacademy.com if you plan on coming!

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Amazon Smile

Wy'East Academy is now on Amazon Smile! Donate to Wy'East Academy while you shop with zero cost to you. Amazon Donates 0.5% of your purchase to Wy'East Mountain Academy when you register Wy'East as the nonprofit you wish to support.

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Life Improvement through People, Place & Passion

A fundraising celebration hosted by the Wy'East Mountain Academy

About this event

Come join us FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17TH, 2021 in Portland, Oregon for our first annual Good in the Woods, fundraising celebration.

Our goal is to bring families and supporters together for an incredible evening to celebrate our new 501c3 not-for-profit status and to raise $50,000 in scholarship funds so we may extend the incredible Wy’East Mountain Academy experience to more students. To help reach our goal, we have a Penny for Penny match on all proceeds raised enabling YOU to double your positive impact!

Hosted by Nemo Design, the evening will feature: 

• Unique silent bid items, including; snowboarding & skiing gear, IKON pass, renown action sports photography, airline tickets, and much more…

• Art show

• Fun activities

• Meet action sports athletes & industry moguls

• And much more…

WHERE?

NEMO DESIGN

1875 SE Belmont St,

Portland, OR 97214

7PM - CLOSE Party, Raffles, & Silent Auctions

Your $20.00 ticket includes 1 adult beverage and 1 raffle ticket. Additional raffle tickets can be purchased upon entry. 

Please help support our mission of Life Improvement Through People, Place, and Passion.

 Ways you can contribute:

• Buy tickets

• Donate auction items

• Volunteering

• Event sponsorships

Please email luke@wyeastacademy.com if you are interested in donating, volunteering, or becoming a sponsor for the event.

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS!!!