For the first time in seven years, Hamilton’s Mock Trial team has qualified for the National Tournament. Mock Trial is a student organization that teaches its members the skills of law through participation in competitions held by the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA). Students on the Mock Trial team learn skills that are crucial to court trials, including persuasive speaking, rhetoric skills, acting, legal reading and debate skills.
Their main competitive season is in the Spring, but Mock Trial competes in various tournaments in the Fall where they practice and hone their skills. This past fall, the Mock Trial team competed in tournaments held by the University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, Georgia State University, Geneseo Joust and the Engelhardt Invitational hosted by Luther College.
On Saturday, March 19, and Sunday, March 20, the Mock Trial Team competed in the New York Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS) hosted by Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. At ORCS, Elise Wilson ’22 won an Outstanding Witness award and John Rutecki ’22 received an Outstanding Attorney award. Additionally, the team earned a spot for Nationals.
The team is led by co-captains Brooke Kessler ’22 and Peri Kessler ’22. When asked what going to Nationals meant to her, Brooke Kessler stated that “getting a bid to nationals is huge for our team. Hamilton Mock Trial has not been to nationals since 2015, and Peri and I as co-captains very much wanted to end that streak. Our team is entirely student-run, as opposed to many other programs that qualify for nationals. This means we do not have any lawyers or other kinds of coaches helping us. Our scripts and speeches are our own and we take a lot of pride in that. Getting a bid to Nationals truly feels like the culmination of four years of hard work and dedication to this activity.”
The 2022 AMTA National Championship will be hosted by Elizabethtown College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania April 8–10. The Hamilton Mock Trial team will be competing against 48 other schools. Kessler noted that the team has “less than three weeks to prepare for nationals and has to prepare an entirely new case. We have never prepared a case in this shortened timeline before, but we are excited for the challenge. To get us ready, we will be practicing every single day and working to put together a cohesive case on both the prosecution and defense sides that plays to our strengths as a program.”
The team headed to Nationals includes Brooke Kessler, Peri Kessler, Wilson, Rutecki, Kiley Hartman ’23 and Nicholas Garvey ’23.
Wilson is completing her final semester at Hamilton and her Hamilton Mock Trial career. Wilson remarked, “I am really looking forward to competing against the best teams in the country. I can really say you learn about Mock Trial from teams that are good at the activity, so attending Nationals is a huge privilege. We also are trying a completely new case. Our case for the entire year was on aggravated arson. Now, we are charging the defendant, a police officer, with aiding and abetting a police drug skimming scheme! It is completely new and exciting territory.”
When looking back on her Hamilton Mock Trial experience, Wilson said that “mock trial is really unique in that it lets you collaborate with people in an academic-like setting, something we do not frequently do in the classroom because of the individualistic grading system. We are all ‘graded’ together on Mock, so we collaborate intensely, and it’s so fun. I also really love how much Mock Trial has improved my public speaking skills and my ability to think quickly and speak eloquently on my feet.”
Upcoming tryouts will be held in the Fall semester. Only freshman and sophomores are eligible to join Mock Trial, as members build off of the skills they learn through their experiences with the team.