Every week since the start of the school year, a team of young intellectuals have spent hours in preparation. As their first competition approaches, the Mock Trial team has put in blood, sweat and tears to their preparation in hopes of making it to states.
The Mock Trial team has historically done well in the regional competition, and was awarded with an honorable mention last year. Striving to achieve more this year, the team is working hard to learn the case inside and out. Second year member, Morgan Deenik ’24 is practicing with the team to perfect their performance together.
“We’re running through the trial and trying different people in different parts and just practicing a lot,” Deenik said.
With about three weeks until the competition the team has a lot of preparation to do. Mock Trial’s advisor, Peter Palen said he sees improvements that can be made with the team’s memorization skills.
“I think one of our current weaknesses is using notes [and] relying too heavily on notes because, one of the ways that you’re scored is like your ability not to use notes,” Palen said.
Palen is not alone in this concern, first year member Millie Vollmer ’27, is dedicating her time to improve her ability to learn the case forward and backward before their competition.
“I’m really just gonna try and memorize my whole thing and just like the most important details on them and then just memorize those details,” Vollmer said.
With this being her first competition, Vollmer is becoming anxious as the event approaches.
“[I’m worried about] just being up there [at the competition] and just not really remembering,” Vollmer said.
On the other hand, returning members of the team are looking forward to presenting their case, and Deenik said she feels well prepared and is excited for the competition.
“I think I’m doing a good job at understanding the case itself,” Deenik said.
Palen has watched the team prepare for competitions time and time again. He said each year he watches the case come together before the competition
“It’s easy to kind of put it off until it gets real, and then right before the tournament I always see that the students automatically get more prepared,” Palen said.
