This year has been an amazing year for St. Charles East’s Mock Trial team. They now have a state record for the most wins in a single season, which is something to celebrate. To get more insight on the team and its success, junior team members Teige Donehoo and Samahi Shah were interviewed.

“There’s been a lot of cooperation overall,” said Donehoo after being asked what helped contribute to the team’s success. When asking Shah the same question, she said that this year the team got a lot of help from outside attorneys.

“We had a lot of outside attorney help,” she said. So, it seems like cooperation as well as outside help has really set the team up to win. 

Since this year was particularly successful for Mock trial, what changed from last year? “I think positivity and team connection was a lot better,” said Shah. 

Donehoo added, “I think that this year has been a lot more fun. We’ve put a lot more work in obviously, but overall, [our] mental game has been a lot stronger.” With the positivity and teamwork, it is not surprising that this would lead to a successful season.

Mock Trial is a very big commitment that takes time and energy to be a part of. In meetings, students are assigned different roles and characters they must embody to demonstrate a courtroom situation. There are roles and positions for everyone. For example, Shah is a closer and also a crosser on the junior varsity team to help out. Donehoo was an expert witness for two years and is currently a directing attorney. It takes practice to fully embody your role and there truly is one for anybody who wants to join. 

Finally, both students were asked what their goals were for the rest of the season. Both students want to win State and get a placement. Shah said, “Since we’ve won so many tournaments in Mock Trial as a whole, we really hope that this team gets a placement.” 

Similarly, Donehoo said, “Obviously we wanna win State, we’re probably the front runners behind maybe a couple other teams this year.” 

Overall, Mock Trial has done amazing this year so far and surely will continue to. For what it seems, the team has a positive environment and a supportive yet competitive atmosphere that really helped lead to their success.