After losing half its members to graduation at the end of last year, the Mock Trial team has a new look this year.
Social studies teacher and coach Jeff Scott said the team lost some great student leaders including Shannon Galvin, Vijay Menon and Navneet Ramesh.
The rebuilding process began with a long night of tryouts on Oct. 4. Afterward, coaches and captains deliberated and decided on its cast for the upcoming competition year.
The presence of so many newcomers, however, will not affect the team’s competition skills, according to senior co-captain Michael Chang.
Each student who tried out was given the position of a witness, a trial attorney or a pretrial attorney.
Longtime attorney coach Dr. Hugh Roberts, who is back again this year after contemplating retirement last year, and Scott both said they were impressed by the talent they saw in the sophomores and freshmen at the tryouts.
“After seeing some of our new members and their abilities, we have actually rethought that this may not be a rebuilding year as we thought before,” Scott said.
This year’s case is centered around the murder of a college student. The defendant is her wealthy, politically connected best friend and is considerably different from last year’s assault with a deadly weapon case.
“This year’s case is a fun one, combining a nasty murder with a very good pretrial motion concerning the Second Amendment,” Roberts said. “It will be interesting to see how far this team goes.”
Roberts, who started the Mock Trial program at the school in 1983, will return this year along with attorney and SHS parent, Rob Galvin, to coach the team. Scott will be entering his second year as the team’s staff coach. This year, the team will also be welcoming Tom Larkin, a recent graduate of Santa Clara Law School.
This year’s team has only five returning members from the 12-person team that made it to the county finals last year. The returning members are co-captains and seniors Michael Chang and Jimmy Zheng, juniors Rohan Cotah and Ashwini Velchamy and sophomore Jennie Werner.
Last year’s Mock Trial team was undefeated until the Santa Clara County Finals, where it lost by a slim margin to Prospect High School.
“I think the returning members are more hungry than ever to win. With our usual incredibly strong coaching staff, our team has a very strong chance of staying competitive,” Chang said.
The cast for the 2011-2012 Mock Trial team: Pretrial attorneys-freshman Anshika Maheshwari and junior Neil Prasad; Prosecution Attorneys-Michael Chang (lead), freshman Sophia Ajanee, freshman Sonal Pai; Defense Attorneys-Ashwini Velchamy (lead), sophomore Trishika Shetty, sophomore Casey Takahashi; Prosecution Witnesses-freshman Max Chang, Rohan Cotah, freshman Yvonne Ye, sophomore Sachi Verma; Defense Witnesses-sophomore Charles Li, Jennie Werner, freshman Catherine Cheng, Jimmy Zheng; Bailiff-sophomore Darius Tooyserkani; Clerk-freshmen Timothy Chau; Alternates-freshmen Timothy Chau, Stephen Peng, Michelle Luo.