Mock Trial focuses on improving after first scrimmage

“Objection!” senior co-captain Peter VandeVort said, his voice resounding throughout the Gunderson High School classroom. When the judge asked for his reasoning, VandeVort replied, “Your Honor, I have no clue.”

The first two-hour-long scrimmage of the season at Gunderson High School on Jan. 9 gave the 22-member team the opportunity to run through their routine in a mock competition-like setting, ironing out problems before the Santa Clara County Mock Trial Competition on Jan.31.

This year’s Mock Trial season presents a case of human trafficking and false imprisonment of Lin Stark, an immigrant from the fictional country Tanterra. Attorneys will present their arguments to prove the defendant, Cameron Awbrey, guilty or innocent of those crimes.

Other scrimmages were against West Valley Middle College on Jan. 17, Basis-Independent Silicon Valley on Jan. 19 and  Los Gatos on Jan. 24.

While scrimmages are more relaxed and practice-based than competitions, they also allow for a valuable opportunity for team members to practice objections and doing cross examinations. These skills require members to think on their feet and are harder to emulate during weekly meetings.

Now the lead prosecuting attorney for the second year in a row, VandeVort said he has “a good idea of what's going and how to improve.”

“You have to constantly be paying attention as an attorney because you never know when the other team might try to sneak in objectionable material,” VandeVort said. “You also have to be good at improvising for moments when the other team objects to your material when you aren’t ready."

While the scrimmages weren’t all smooth sailing, sophomore member Anuj Changavi was happy with the experience he got before the official tournament. As a new member of the team, Changavi had his first run as an attorney at the Gunderson scrimmage. He served as a pretrial attorney, the attorney that presides over the preliminary hearing of a trial to sort out last-minute discrepancies, such as questionably obtained statements or evidence.

“I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I felt good and confident when I was presenting my case,” he said. “For the team, I thought that we were able to shake off a lot of rust and really figure out what we need to focus on in the future.”

VandeVort said timing is the team’s most important area of improvement. During competitions, teams are given a certain number of minutes to finish all opening and closing statements, complete direct examinations and finish cross examinations.

“Prosecution is currently four minutes over our 14-minute time limit,” VandeVort said. “During the closing argument, I had to cut out two and a half paragraphs in order to stay within the time limit. So we've got some work to do.”

Although the team meets Tuesday evenings for two hours to practice, sometimes the time just isn’t enough to prepare for scrimmages and tournaments.

“During meetings we begin with any important information needed before reviewing witnesses,” VandeVort said. “We try to get as many as possible though, sending attorney witness pairs into other classrooms in order to get as much done during the practice.”

With the season underway, members are focusing on feedback from coaches Mary McDonnell, Jing-Lan Lee and Michael Hseuh from their first, second and third scrimmages to improve their performance in future trials. Changavi and VandeVort are optimistic and believe that the team will be able to use their scrimmages to improve their routine.

“I feel scrimmages are something everyone can benefit from, and it’s fun going up against other schools in a real world application,” Changavi said.