The mock trial team set out to San Rafael on Nov. 24 for its first scrimmage with its new coach, English teacher Michael Kim. With a team of 36 members and two teacher advisers, Kim and History teacher Jim Chin, as well as a new attorney coach, Ed Quevedo, the team competed against Kim’s previous school, San Rafael High School.
While last year’s team only had 17 members, this year’s team has more than double that number. As a result, the program has added a JV team.
“We had a strong group of freshmen who were intrigued by mock trial and then chose to join the team,” Kim said. “We also have a handful of upperclassmen join who wanted to ‘do something fun and challenging’ during their last year of high school.”
The JV team usually competes against other schools’ JV teams, but also steps in for the varsity team.
“The JV team are also understudies to the varsity team, like a performance,” Kim said. “If someone cannot make a scrimmage, it’s good to have someone to fill in the missing role.”
According to Chang, the JV team will be extremely helpful in the future.
“This is the first year we have a full JV team, and it has been an incredible advantage,” he said. “We have a lot more ideas and support, and the JV team has strengthened the foundation of our team.”
Much of the success of the team will be determined by these new members.
“We have a lot of newcomers this year; however, they’ve been fantastic and have picked up the material really quickly, and are shaping up to be some of our strongest members,” junior and captain Max Chang said.
Mock trial allows students to learn about the court system and further their public speaking skills. Each year the team gets a court case, practices it and then enacts it in a real courthouse at the end of the season. Each person on the team plays a role and is either on the plaintiff or defense side. Then, the team competes against other schools in the county, state, and national levels.
The case assigned to all mock trial teams across the country this year is called People vs. Concha.
“This year's case invokes an alleged murder and various high school band students involved with a controlled substance,” Kim said.
Some important members this year include senior Sachi Verma, the head defense attorney, and senior Charles Li, an important witness.
The mock trial season runs from late September to mid-February and ends in a county competition at the Santa Clara County Courthouse. The winner of the county competition goes on to the state competition in San Jose, and the winner of the state competition goes on to Nationals in Madison, Wisconsin.
The team has scheduled scrimmages against San Rafael, Leland, Los Gatos, and many other schools. They have also entered a Santa Clara County Invitational Tournament in January, which will have schools from inside and outside the county.
“Our success really depends on how hard each of us is willing to commit to the team. Every person matters,” Chang said.