EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado — Snowboarding phenom Faye Gulini left home three years ago to train in Vail. And since then, she's been living with local host families — an experience that has been mostly positive and sometimes challenging for the teen.

When Faye was 15, her father, Dave Gulini, pulled her out of public school in Salt Lake City because her whirlwind competition schedule was interfering with her grades.

“She traveled so much that her grades kind of went down hill,” Dave Gulini recalled.

After looking into the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, Dave Gulini decided it was the right place for his daughter. The main selling point was classes that accommodated Faye's traveling, he said.

However, Dave Gulini would not be able to move to Vail with Faye. Uprooting his family wasn't an option because his job was based in Utah and he couldn't afford to move to Vail. As a single father, he couldn't leave Faye's two brothers behind in Salt Lake City.

Instead, Dave Gulini asked his friends, Mike and Kim Woods, if they would let Faye stay at their Gypsum home. The Woods became Faye's main “host family” over the past three years (she also stayed with a host mom in Edwards for a year).

For a growing number of Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy students, Vail is their adopted home. Lured by the promise of top-notch training, classes molded around competition travel and the free admission at the country's only public ski and snowboard academy, students have come to the Vail school from as far away as Hong Kong.

Unlike most private ski schools, the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy lacks dorms for students. As a result, the school often relies on “host families” to take the students in when their parents can't relocate to Vail.

Just between friends

At first, Kim Woods worried that her two teenage sons living with a girl their age could lead to trouble, but that concern quickly melted away.

“For us, it was great having a girl in the house,” she said.

Dave Gulini said his daughter felt “a little isolated” living on the other side of the valley from school, but getting her driver's license helped with that. The Woods' home became Faye's base as she honed her snowboarding skills — and made the U.S. Olympic snowboarding team.

“We've been really proud of her,” Woods said.

Growing enrollment

While successful “host family” stories exist, some say the academy will need a more stable housing situation for students as the school expands.

Since the academy opened three years ago, enrollment has doubled from 30 to about 60 students.

“There's no other public ski academy in the country,” said Carey Davis, director of admissions for the school. “That's our No. 1 draw.”

Part of Eagle County School District, the academy adheres to state curriculum standards and currently occupies a wing inside Minturn Middle School. Students train on Vail Mountain with coaches from Ski and Snowboard Club Vail.

Aldo Radamus, executive director of the club, estimates the enrollment could swell to 150 students in five years.

“I think that the core of the student body is always going to be Vail Valley locals,” he said. “We believe 25 percent would be from outside the Vail Valley and candidates for having a dormitory-type facility.”

Currently, 10 students have relocated to Vail with one or more parents, while four students are staying with host families.

Maryann Ziolkowski, from New Jersey, does a mixture of both. When she enrolled her teenage son, Zach Ziolkowski, in the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, she was unsure at first where he would live.

“We took a chance by driving 33 hours out here and hoping someone was actually going to take him because I didn't have any housing or a job set up out here,” she said.

During several months in the summer and fall, Zach lives with Ronda Niederhauser, the owner of the Columbine Bakery, in her family's Avon home.

“He has become part of the family,” Niederhauser said.

During the rest of the year, Maryann Ziolkowski relocates to Vail with her son, where she serves as a “host mom” for other academy students.

Dorm details

The host family system has its challenges, Radamus said.

“Every year, you're trying to find new host families,” he said. “Sometimes the host and the hosted don't click.”

Several host families also said driving students to and from school could get overwhelming. For students, adjusting to a new style of parenting can also be frustrating.

The dorm dream

Radamus said he envisions building a small dorm for 18 to 24 kids, along with staff who relocate to Vail for their jobs, he said.

Building the dorm would cost millions of dollars, Radamus estimates, but he argues the ski club could raise the money.

“Best-case scenario, if we knew we had the opportunity to move forward, we'd look to break ground 18 months to two years after we knew we could do it,” he said.

To get started, though, the ski club needs a place to build the dorm. Radamus said he hopes the school district will consider providing land. Eagle County School Board President Connie Kincaid-Strahan said the board has not yet discussed that. However, she expects the topic to come up as the board debates what to do with the vacant Battle Mountain High School in Eagle-Vail and all schools on the east end of the district.

‘More convenient'

Faye Gulini said the dorm is a good idea.

“That way, everyone's in the same place ...” she said. “You always have a ride to school, the mountain. It would just make things so much more convenient for everyone.”

Several parents questioned how much supervision the students would receive in a dorm.

Radamus said at least two adult couples would serve as live-in “dorm parents.”

“There's a high degree of responsibility that the club would undertake in terms of supervising these kids and providing a healthy, supportive community,” he said.

Staff Writer Sarah Mausolf can be reached at 970-748-2928 or smausolf@vaildaily.com.