Clarke Central Mock Trial plaintiff witness Reece Dale, a sophomore, and defense witness Kurali Grantham, a sophomore, stand in the Clarke Central High School Media Center on Feb. 5. Dale and Grantham competed in the Georgia High School Mock Trial Northeast Georgia Regional Competition at the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens on Feb. 2, where Grantham received a Best Witness award. “I felt like a lot of the other witnesses should’ve got Best Witness, too,” Grantham said. “You want to be, like, in control of the courtroom, and I didn’t really do that as best as I could, so I’m just going to work on knowing my stuff.” Photo by Shea Peters
After placing 3rd in the Georgia High School Mock Trial Northeast Georgia Regional Competition, the Clarke Central High School Mock Trial team will continue to the district level on Feb. 23.
The Clarke Central High School Mock Trial team placed 3rd at the Georgia High School Mock Trial Northeast Georgia Regional Competition in Athens at the University of Georgia School of Law on Feb. 2. Based on this placement, the team will compete at the District IV level on Feb. 23 at the Forsyth County Courthouse in Cumming, Georgia.
Social studies department teacher and Mock Trial teacher-coach Kalli James-Wyrick is pleased with the honors the team members achieved at their regional competition.
“We placed third, and won several different types of awards, because they give out awards for each little round,” James-Wyrick said. “For each trial they give a Best Witness and a Best Attorney, as well, so we ended up getting two Best Witnesses and three Best Attorneys throughout the day.”
According to James-Wyrick, among those who won awards were defense attorney junior Grace Gilbertson Hall and first-time starters plaintiff attorney freshman Eva Orbock, plaintiff witness sophomore Cate Goldman and defense witness sophomore Kurali Grantham.
“Being more experienced makes me feel more confident about my performance,” Grantham said. “This is my first time performing, last year I was on JV sub, and I was a timekeeper at the competition. This year I actually got to do something.”
While the team did well, plaintiff witness Reece Dale, a sophomore, believes the team needs to be more vocal in future competitions.
“I feel like we definitely held back a lot and I feel like we could definitely get out there a little bit more,” Dale said. “We just kind of have to keep up the momentum.”
According to James-Wyrick, team members should hone in on their confidence during practice, which occurs three times a week.
“We’re going to focus a lot on the rules of the competition where you make objections and things like that, and getting our side down a little more precisely, making sure we make those changes,” James-Wyrick said. “It’s just having things down, being off-book, and having that confidence in response to objections, and that comes from learning exactly what the rules are.”
James-Wyrick is optimistic about their future competitions.
“It’s just putting in that work a little more outside of practice and stuff that they need to focus on, but we definitely have strong people on the team,” James-Wyrick said. “Just push it as much as they can, but we could definitely win, for sure. I’ve seen them do great things.”
