By Justin Andress, The Mountain Times
Every day, residents drive past the unassuming Wy’East Mountain Academy campus (formerly Windell’s) with little idea of the world-class facilities and dynamic education taking place just beyond the trees on Highway 26. Over the last four years, Wy’East has guided its students toward an impressive 100 percent college acceptance rate.
“The idea is that [the students] dictate their future,” says Academy Head Mike Hanley. “If you sit in class and don’t do anything, nothing good is going to happen. But if you work hard, good things magically happen.
That adherence to hard work permeates the school, where 57 students aged 12 to 19 split their days between studying and practicing in one of four action sports disciplines: skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing or mountain biking.
Walking through the grounds, you don’t have to be an action sports fan to see that something special has developed on the Mt. Hood campus. It’s hard not to be impressed with the Academy’s ever-expanding facilities. The 28-acre campus has been turned into a concrete playground that complements the natural beauty of the Hoodland area without disturbing it.
Skiers and snowboarders hone their skills on a year-round slope that ends in an enormous landing bag perfect for practicing aerial maneuvers. Skateboarders cruise the entirely skateable campus, gliding between two fully equipped skate parks. Mountain bikers climb hills and hit jumps on the multi-acre course built into the mountainside.
Wy’East Academy has a vaunted place among action sports enthusiasts. First opened in 1989 by legendary snowboarder Tim Windell, the campus has played host to several action sports luminaries both before and after they made their name.
“Tim always tells this story,” says Hanley as we tour the campus. “Toward the end of the 2000s, there was a little kid … [Tim] let the family park their RV here and would actually give him a little piggy back up the halfpipe. That was one of our new owners: Shaun White.”
White spent several summers at the campus perfecting his technique before becoming a three-time Olympic gold medalist. Earlier this year, White invested in the camp, the camp that helped shape his future. Indeed, Olympic glory seems to have been sewn into the fabric of the Academy since it opened its doors in 2009.
“On that first day, we only had two kids,” says Hanley. “It was pretty terrifying. We had a staff of six and only two students. By the end of that year, we had 27. Three years in, we had seven [students] ranked in the top 100 professionals in the world, including three in the top 10. Since that time, we’ve had a student or alum on the podium at every Olympics.”
Chasing Olympic gold isn’t the purpose of Wy’East Academy. Hanley explains, “The athletic components here are usually why people sign up, but we use athletics as a tool to get them to grow as a person. That’s what we’re working for. Our mission is life improvement through people, place and passion.”
That rigorous devotion to improvement extends to the classroom. Students work through Edgenuity’s self-guided curriculum under the supervision and tutelage of two attentive teachers.
“We check their pace every day to see where they’re at with their program,” explains educator Adam Moreschi.
That diligence has resulted in an average GPA of 3.5 for Wy’East’s students.
Hanley is understandably proud of that academic accomplishment when he discusses the philosophy behind Wy’East Academy. “We believe how you do anything is how you do everything. If they work hard with their sports, then it carries over into the classroom, and that carries over into residential. [We want them to learn to] be a nice person, be a good person, give back to the community. Everything we do here is with the goal of improving lives.”
To that end, the faculty of Wy’East Academy work overtime to ensure their students possess the ability to pursue their passions once they graduate. The academic staff hosts an advisory course to help students prepare for the PSAT and SAT. When test day arrives, they also host sessions for kids enrolled in both the Academy and the nearby Oregon Trail School District.
When the students are on the road at tournaments, accompanying staff members take them on tours of nearby college campuses to stoke their excitement for higher education.
When it comes time to apply for colleges, the staff works to relieve the financial burden on families by familiarizing parents with FAFSA applications and untapped scholarship potential.
Given Wy’East Academy’s record for excellence, it’s no wonder kids from nine countries, including Japan, Canada, Italy, China, and the Czech Republic have found their way to Mt. Hood to study and train.
“One of the biggest hurdles we’ve found is the perceived culture of action sports,” says Hanley.
Wy’East Academy isn’t interested in falling into stereotypes. The school is charting its own path forward by harnessing its students’ passion for action sports and channeling that drive into a passion for life.