The BBHHS Mock Trial Team prepared for a long time to compete in the Mock Trial competition. This year’s case centers on whether the method used to obtain the DNA evidence from a man on trial for murder violates his Fourth Amendment rights.
Regrettably, Friday, February 6, they lost the trial during the district competition, and therefore failed to qualify for the regional competition.
According to Tim Adams, the mock trial team advisor, “Unfortunately, we lost in our District Competition this year. One frustrating aspect to this was that we didn’t have an opponent to face in the afternoon session of our Virtual Competition. We didn’t get that additional chance to shine and take down another competitor.”
Martha Lavrishin, a senior student from the Mock Trial team, discusses the effort that the team devotes to the preparation. She says, “We basically practice at least two times a week for probably a couple of months and we have a lawyer that comes in and she helps us prepare all of our statements and we do scrimmages to prepare for it.”
When asked about the feelings in the final moments of the competition, Katelyn Grispino, a freshman and member of the mock trial team, recalls the scene. She describes the last competition vividly saying, “The last one was the competition when the judges were giving us feedback. I almost like didn’t want it to end because I’d worked so hard to get there and it was ending and it was kind of sad and bittersweet at the same time. I was looking around at all the seniors. This was their last competition and they were going to be passing on the club to us eventually so it was bittersweet.”
Undoubtedly, the loss of the competition hurts them a lot, especially after all the effort they put in. While failure is not something to be afraid of; what is truly daunting is lacking the courage to confront it and overcome it again.
“I think they had a lot of obstacles this year, but they definitely worked hard to get around them and I think it’s motivation for them next year to just work harder. I think now that a lot of the new people have more understanding of it, they will have some great leaders that will do an amazing job next year.” Lavrishin states firmly.
Grispino looks ahead with hope for the future. She says, “Right now in the club we have a really good group of people and a few of them, like me, were freshmen. In the coming years, we will be able to gain more arguing skills and become better at what we’re doing and teach these skills to underclassmen that will be coming. I see us being able to reach Regionals and States at some point.”
Apparently, they weren’t discouraged or held back by a momentary mistake in this competition. Instead, they turned the defeat into strength and pushed forward with even more determination.
