Every October, the Upper School Mock Trial Team receives the fictitious case they will try at the YMCA Youth & Government Mock Trial district tournament. This year, the students worked on a civil case where a plaintiff sued an extreme sports corporation after he fell in a hole while biking at one of the corporation’s resorts. The 22 students, who were put on either the more experienced Blue Team or the less experienced Green Team, begin learning the case during their three-hour Sunday practices and one weeknight practice. The students took on the roles of attorneys and witnesses and a bailiff who keeps time during the trials. As the district competition approached, more practices were added, and Sunday
practices often lasted four hours.

At the district competition, each team competes in four rounds. In each round, one side of the team, either plaintiff or defense, competes against the opposing side of an opposing school. The Blue Team finished first and the Green Team finished second at the competition, which meant they qualified for the state competition. At the state competition in April, the Blue Team finished 11th and the Green Team finished 13th in a field that
included 24 teams. The following students were nominated for awards at the state competition:

• Komathi Anand and Pascale Carlson, 10th grade; Haley Hoffman, 11th grade; and Alexandra Sniezek and Shraeya Iyer, 12th grade,
  were nominated for Best Attorney
   
• Maddie Takamiya and René Quiroga, 10th grade; Ben Reichert, 11th grade; Cade Evered, Shraeya Iyer, and Alexandra Sniezek, 12th grade, were nominated for Best Witness

Mock Trial participants learn trial skills, critical thinking, persuasive argument, public speaking, acting, and writing skills. “We all learn a lot about how to work cooperatively, how to listen to each other—listening is a critical trial skill—how to argue persuasively, and how to compromise,” said Coach Dawn W Todd, a former lawyer who has coached the UPrep team for almost two decades. “Students learn what evidence is and what it isn’t, and they become confident.”

Coach Patrick Trompeter ’97 loves observing how students become more creative and curious about what the facts mean—rather than what the words say—as their confidence grows. “The ability to critically evaluate what one reads and hears, to place it in a larger context of information and evaluate whether it is reliable, and then to allow it to change one’s beliefs may be one of the most important life skills we can teach to young people,” said Patrick, a lawyer who was on the Mock Trial Team when he was a UPrep Upper School student.

Cade: Actor and Budding Filmmaker

Senior Cade Evered joined Mock Trial this year because he likes acting. He played two witness roles. “I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the
three-hour practices on Sunday nights where we would go over the trial,” he said. “As I learned the witness statements, I started developing the
characters. I treated it much like a play.”

Cade played Nicky, a person who fell off his bike into a hole at an extreme sports resort who was suing the resort, and Brohm, a witness on the defendant’s side who was a professor of mountain biking ethics. “During the competition, you respond to questions while in character. That’s really fun because you feel like you are someone else,” he said.

Cade loves that the work you put in pays off during the competitions. “How much you know about the details of the case influences the outcome of the case,” he said. “I memorized my witness statement, but my coaches told me if I remembered the other witness statements, I could add a second layer of details to my testimony.”

At one point during the season, Cade felt he knew more about Nicky than he knew about himself. “While in character, I believed I actually had fallen off my bike and into a hole,” he said.

This year, Cade won Best Witness at the district competition. While he adores acting, Cade will study filmmaking in college and hopes to write, direct, and produce movies.

Shraeya: Future Attorney with Passion for Law

Senior Shraeya Iyer participated in Mock Trial throughout Upper School. “I’ve known that I want to be a lawyer for a long time, and I wanted to see if my passion for law was based in reality,” she said.

Shraeya usually played the part of a lawyer during Mock Trial competitions. She loved learning about case theory and evidentiary rules and how to structure questions and examinations. “It was also so interesting to analyze different cases and see how it could support my case,” she said.

Although the competition trials were online this year, Shraeya has fond memories of competing in a Kitsap courtroom in person in the past. Reflecting on her Mock Trial experiences, she recognizes her growth as a public speaker. “I became more composed and surer of myself. I just felt so much more confident that I had the ability to say things on the fly,” Shraeya said. “My confidence in interacting with different people also improved, whether I know them well or if they are completely new to me.”

This year, Shraeya won Best Attorney at the district competition. “I’m prouder of my actual performance than winning awards. I felt calmer and more collected during the trials this season,” she said. In college, Shraeya wants to study finance as an undergraduate, and then plans to attend law school.