We started all the way back in August with one end goal in mind: State. We had just barely missed the cut the previous year. The case may have been fake, but the dedication couldn’t have been more real. The first step was to become familiar with our case. Before tryouts, our club’s president, Caroline Brandes, held a practice at her house where we could run over a few things and socialize with each other. After a few weeks of having the case, we held Saturday tryouts to find out which role and which side everyone would be on.
This year’s case was criminal: The State of South Carolina vs. Dorian Delaney. Delaney was the head coach of the Southern Carolina High School track team. On Aug. 8, one of the hottest days of the summer, Coach Delaney chose to have practice. During said practice, a student athlete, Kylin Abbott, ran to the point of collapsing and eventually died. Now, hearing that, could you imagine defending that in court? Well, as the defense, it was our job to do just that. To defend Coach Delaney, we came up with a simple theme that we knew would stick with the jury (three state attorneys who sat in on the trial and decided the winner). The theme I created and our defense agreed on was “Pills, Pressure, and Pride.” I can break each one down for you.
- Pills: Kylin depended on Strenaxal to relieve her anxiety. Since Strenaxal is an amphetamine, it is linked to sudden deaths. This risk is increased when Strenaxal is used under extreme physical exertion, such as participation in a sport like track and field. Kylin was using Strenaxal for her anxiety, but it was not listed on her health history acknowledgment form.
- Pressure: Kylin’s parent, Avery Abbott, was an extremely successful track runner throughout their career. When their daughter showed an interest in running track and field, Avery took the opportunity to push their daughter to her absolute limit, hoping she would follow in her parents’ footsteps. The pressure Avery Abbott placed on Kylin led her to develop anxiety.
- Pride: The prosecution’s key witness in the case, assistant coach Bailey Brown, neglected to call 911 immediately and didn’t keep an eye on the relay runners. Brown refuses to admit fault in this case because of their pride. Now that Brown is the head coach of the track team at Southern Carolina High School, they have the motivation to not tell the complete truth because they have something to lose.
This theme was something Sydnee Turner and Morgan Davis had to incorporate into their opening statement and closing argument, respectively. After creating a theme, we had to really work on perfecting our cross-examinations and direct examinations, which we did mainly with the help of our attorney coach, Joseph Bias. The creation of crosses and directs is a tedious process, and it took multiple weeks to finalize everything. We spent many weeks going over small things like objections or how to properly cross and direct. The process was long, but in the end, it would prove to be worth it.
On Jan. 18, the mock trial team took our annual trip to the Joseph F. Rice School of Law at USC to run through our case completely and for a tour of the school. The whole experience was truly amazing and intriguing. Getting to run through everything in a real courtroom really prepared us for what the real moment would be like.
After the USC practice, we had another special practice. Although we had practiced every Tuesday, this one was special because we had Joseph Anders, a federal judge, attend our practice. This heightened many nerves, including mine. Having a professional judge would make almost anyone nervous. I knew the ability to perform well despite nerves was an important skill for attorneys. If I wanted to succeed, I couldn’t get thrown off. I walked into my cross and direct with total confidence, and it paid off. Everything went as well as it could have. For my cross, I really focused on making my personality show. I wanted to make sure it was effective and be as tough on the witness as I could. The judge left us with invaluable critiques, but he left me specifically with a compliment that only fueled me to continue going. He said, “He’s a natural, tell him to go to law school.” This let me know that everything was for a reason.
After weeks of role changes, preparation, stress, tears, happiness, and many more emotions, Feb. 22 was finally here—Regionals. It was only the first of two goals. For mock trial competitions, for purposes of fairness, we are not allowed to show which school we actually go to, so we got the abbreviation “GG” for regionals.
For the first round, it was RNE’s defense vs. Dreher’s prosecution. I was nervous—it was the first round of the whole competition, and I didn’t want to be the one to mess it up for us. To be honest, this was a pretty easy matchup for us. The second round of regionals was RNE’s prosecution vs. Hammond’s defense. We believed the round would also result in a win as it was competitive, and we thought we had the edge. The third round was by far the most competitive at Regionals. It was RNE’s prosecution vs. Spring Valley’s defense. We knew Spring Valley was a good team, and we wanted to beat them badly. This round was extremely competitive—both teams very clearly wanted to win. We were confident about the performance our prosecution displayed, but we thought that we had lost the round. Meaning, at the end of all three rounds, we thought we had a record of 2-1.
On the following Monday, we got the results back, and they were shocking. For State, they chose the top two teams from each region and two wildcards from the whole state. In the Columbia region, the top two teams who would be advancing to state were Hammond and Spring Valley, respectively. Meaning, we had gone against the top two teams in our region but still did not make it. The feeling of defeat for the second year in a row was devastating. The work we had put in was like no other, and we knew we deserved to go to state. We had honestly forgotten all about the wildcard—we just knew we didn’t make it to state. As the wildcard flashed on the screen, the first of only two schools to show was Richland Northeast. The group chat erupted in messages—no one could believe it. We had finally got what we deserved. We had finally accomplished the goal. Everyone was ready to go and compete. The wildcard title suited us perfectly, as everything during the season leading up to this moment had been wild. We knew that as a wildcard, we had something to prove, and we were ready to prove it.
After the ceremony, we got the scores from regionals.
Making it to State was huge for us, because it was the first time since 2018 that the team had made State. We had the chance to do something special, and we weren’t going to let it go to waste. The practice directly following Regionals was a celebration for the team. We talked about what to do going forward and the people to receive perfect 10s from the judges during the competition (Sydnee Turnerx2, Markell Watsonx2, Caroline Brandesx3, Iris Fergusonx2, Abigail Geppertx3).
After the celebration, we knew we had just two weeks of hard work until State. During these two weeks, Joseph worked hard and instilled confidence in us, letting us know we really had all it took to make it as far as we wanted. The day was here again, and the nerves were exactly the same. This time, it was March 7. This time around, our team name was “UV,” and our prosecution would be going first. When we walked into the courtroom, the nerves got even worse. We saw it was Spring Valley’s defense vs. RNE’s prosecution again—an exact matchup from the last rounds of regionals. Now, I know many may think, “If you guys already beat them, there’s nothing to worry about.” Well, it’s not that simple. Since we had already gone up against them, they had already known our questions, giving the witnesses on both sides an advantage. And if you remember, we had thought we lost to them the first time, so the prosecution was pretty nervous. This, again, was a good round, as we all expected it to be. It was competitive, everyone seemed much more focused on winning, and we again walked away feeling like we had lost to them — except this time, we were a little more sure.
The defense was up next for the second round. Again, I was nervous since we hadn’t performed since the first round of Regionals, so we were all a little rusty. The second round was RNE’s defense vs. Wilson’s prosecution. This was a good bounce-back round for the defense, as we all felt it was pretty easy, and we had beaten them. After the Wilson round, we went home because there were only two rounds on Friday and the third round would be on Saturday. Upon arriving back at the courthouse, we found out the third round and final match (if we weren’t to make it to the top two) would be the biggest match of them all. The defense would be going against South Carolina Mock Trial powerhouse, Strom Thurmond. To put it into perspective, since 2017, Strom Thurmond has won State five times, meaning they have won 55% of the time. The previous year, in 2024, they placed 6th at nationals. We all knew it was Strom Thurmond, but instead of being nervous, we treated this as if it was some type of revenge. This was the best matchup of the whole competition. This round was extremely competitive. Both teams were fighting to show they were the best, and neither wanted to lose. We walked away from the round feeling like we lost, but we were extremely confident in the performance we had put on. Meaning, we believed we went 1-2 at State, which isn’t bad but most likely wouldn’t get us to the top two.
When it was time for the award ceremony, all the teams at State gathered and listened to the judges’ most effective awards and the top two teams, Strom Thurmond HS and Bob Jones Academy. After countless hours of practicing, memorization, stress, and FaceTimes, it was now over. We were happy, but obviously, nobody likes to lose. As a team, we chose to celebrate even making it to State by going out to eat.
The following Monday, we found out the scores.
Looking at the scores gave the team even more of a reason to celebrate. We made it as a wildcard but beat the #1 team in the state. Spring Valley got fifth, and Hammond got 10th, meaning we placed over the two teams that beat us in Regionals and placed fourth out of 12. This also means that from Regionals to State our defense was undefeated; the hard work had paid off. This year’s Mock Trial taught me how to earn what you deserve, but it also taught me that family always wins together. Before this story ends, I have one question for you to ask yourself. Will you join Mock Trial and help us make Nationals next year?
