For the second constitutive year City High Mock Trial had three teams qualify for the state tournement. The sophomore, junior, and senior teams all qualified through competing in a regional tournament with two rounds. The sophomore and senior teams advanced through the regional tournement. However, the Junior team had to win an additional round, despite winning both of the qualifier rounds, because they lost a tie breaker on the points their team scored.

Katherine Geerdes ‘21, a lawyer on the senior team has been in mock trial since her freshman year, thought that the experience was an important factor in qualifying for state. 

“A lot of [team members] have been on mock trial since they were freshmen. We really emphasize doing scrimmages, and learning how mock trial rounds go. It’s not too difficult really, it’s just a matter of getting experience about how to react to objections, or how to use the right tone of voice,” Geerdes said.

Though she was initially worried about online mock trial, Geerdes has been able to enjoy it despite the restrictions COVID-19 places on the activity.

“It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I was worried about the competition being online, but Mr. Schumann, and his wife Lisa did a nice job, giving us a good online format to compete,” Geerdes said. “You can text someone and then five minutes later be in a Zoom tougher working on something. It has not made a huge difference this year, other than changing some strategies for the online format.”

Liam Clarke, a lawyer on the Junior team, is looking forward to the state tournament.

“We prepared for the season well [by having] practices against the senior team, who are good, so it’s a lot of work but I think we will do well in the end,” Clarke said.

He also thinks that qualifying for state this year is an important step for his team. 

“This was a good year for building skills and getting ready for senior year because it’s probably going to be in person [next year], so we just hunker down and prepare for state,” Clarke said.

The mock trial coach, Jason Schumann, sees the teams’ success as the start of something big for the program.

“We’ve definitely as a program been showing a lot of improvement, and, and, you know, there’s brighter things for our future,” Schumann said.

Schumann also believes that City will be a team to be aware of in the state tournament.

“We’re really excited, students put in a lot of work this year, have a ton of talent, and a lot of experience. We are going to be tough to beat at state,” Schumann said.