MHS Mock Trial Team Prepares for Court

Students to Compete in Regional Competition

Marshfield, WI (OnFocus) The Marshfield High School Mock Trial team is fine-tuning its arguments and closing statements as it prepares to compete in its upcoming regional competition.

Teams are assigned a fictional case to role-play for the competition taking place Feb. 8 in Wisconsin Rapids at the Wood County Courthouse.

“This case involves a 15-year-old who has a condition with his eyes where he can’t see very well, so he’s legally blind,” said Drake White-Bergey, attorney for the witness. “He visits Clearwater Hills Country Club quite often with his parent and one day while the pool was closed, everyone returned to the pool after break and found him dead in the pool, bleeding out of his head. Now we have to argue about whether it was a suicide on his part, or if the country club is at fault somehow for the death.”

White-Bergey, a senior in his fourth year in Mock Trial, directs the witness in the case. Each role requires plenty of preparation. “I write everything out so that I can memorize it and get down exactly what I want to say, and how I’m going to respond to things,” he said.

Tyler Katzenberger, a senior, acts in a witness role as a pool manager on the defense side and the attorney on plaintiff side. He delivers the plaintiff’s closing statement.

“For me it’s finding time at home to sit down, write out my stuff, and memorize it,” said Katzenberger, who is in his third year of Mock Trial. “If I start it early and I start it often, I seem to do well.”

Emilie Koran, junior, is a defense attorney for the second team and in her first year of Mock Trial.

“I’m rereading the affidavits a lot trying to figure out how I can word questions better because at this point we’ve basically got all of the facts down and know what we’re arguing, it’s just a matter of arguing it efficiently,” she said.

A lot of the competition comes down to the ability to think on their feet while facing the opponent. “When you get to the actual competition you don’t know what they’re going to argue or how much they’re going to object, how difficult it will be,” said Koran.

Marshfield will compete against other teams from Wisconsin Rapids, Lakeland, and Reedsburg.