Nine members of the Mock Trial Team won a pre-season competition last weekend. Photo courtesy of Thom Scher.

by Kaitlyn Tom

On Oct. 14 and 15, nine students from the Menlo Mock Trial team competed in the Providence Cup in Denver, where they were successful in winning the competition for the third consecutive year. This success adds another win to a total of five overall Providence Championship titles.

The case was based off of the John F. Kennedy assassination, which added some extra difficulty for the team. “People have perceptions of what happened all ready so […] it was difficult to figure out how to overcome the perspectives of the scorers,” junior Katie Guardino said.

In order to overcome this problem, the preparation differed slightly from other years. “We brought in a US Historian to help with language [and] perspective on the 1960s and Kennedy’s assassination,” head coach Thom Scher said.

While Menlo has defended the championship in this tournament, the competition this year was tougher than was expected. “We never really expect to win, but we came in feeling good about our status and how we were doing and about our [preparation] […] I expected it to be easier from what I’d heard from past years,” Guardino said.

“We faced two state championship teams. Every round was brutal; every round was close,” junior Ben Shaw said.

Some rounds in particular against other high schools provided a significant challenge for Menlo’s team. “Round 2 [against] American Heritage was a rematch of the finals from last year, so tensions were running high, and they did something that is unusual at Providence in being very aggressive with objections,” Scher said. “This was unexpected and took rapid adjustment,” Scher said.

In addition, this year’s Providence team was unique because certain members of the team hadn’t ever competed together on the same council. “This meant that we had to get them trusting one another, working well together, and supporting each other during trial,” Scher said.

The majority of the people of the preseason team have been competing in a particular role for a couple of years. However, senior Jacob Julian-Kwong had to switch from being a pre-trial attorney in the regular season to being an attorney in the preseason. “Doing the competition for the first time as an attorney was a lot of pressure since I lacked the same experience as the other attorneys, but learning the attorney role was definitely super fun and rewarding,” Julian-Kwong said.

The coaching staff also had some obstacles to overcome. “Our coaching staff has changed somewhat […] and that meant that the coaches had to learn how to work best together as well,” Scher said.

Even though winning verifies Menlo Mock Trial’s status as a mock trial team, the goal of the Providence Cup isn’t to solely victory. “It’s not about winning for us. It’s about having breakthrough moments and learning about each other and learning about what we can do for the team during the regular season,” Guardino said.

Winning the Providence Cup sets the tone for the rest of the year. “The most important part of Providence is to create a tight knit group that can lead the rest of the team during the season,” Shaw said.

The team looks forward to the coming season where they will be working on the California case. “I think that the work on witness control, objections, and presentation [and] statements stretched our attorneys, and [the work] on character development stretched our witnesses. Those skills will come in handy when we turn around and try to get back to the State Championship Round,” Scher said.