Nicholas Taylor `16

For the past four months, the St. Ed’s Mock Trial team has been diligently practicing for the District Competition. Mock Trial is a competition in which teams try to “recreate” a real court case. There are two roles in Mock Trial: that of the witness and that of the attorney. There are six potential witnesses, ranging from a high school student to the Vice President of a Fortune 500 Company. The witnesses must know their characters’ backstories inside and out. Attorneys, however, have a lot more to manage. Attorneys work in teams of two and are responsible for establishing an argument for the case presented, including an opening statement, lines of questioning for the witnesses, and a closing argument. An attorney also has to be on his toes at all times to look out for possible objections and craft new questions for witnesses to further improve their case.

The St. Ed’s Mock Trial team is divided into two teams, Green and Gold. The teams are divided into a Plaintiff and a Defense team, which each have at least two attorneys and two witnesses. Both the Green and Gold teams visited Archbishop Hoban on Wednesday, January 8 for the first official inter-school scrimmage. The Gold team faced off against the experienced team from Hoban consisting of Mock Trial Veterans who have advanced to the State Championship. Unshaken by this defeat, the St. Ed’s Mock Trial teams performed admirably against Strongsville on January 19 and have a scrimmage against Orange on January 26 at the Justice Center before the District Competition on January 31.