On December 6-7, Creighton Prep’s mock trial team competed in the 2016 Nebraska High School Mock Trial Competition at the Lancaster County Courthouse in Lincoln, Nebraska, and succeeded in winning the state championship. They are the first Prep team to win since 2001, and before that Prep had never finished above 8th place. The competition at state was tough, with Duchesne having won state the previous two years, along with winning the National Championship two years ago and finishing 2nd at Nationals 2 years ago. There were also other excellent teams at state such as York who went undefeated at state and finished third.

“The attorneys who coached the teams, Mr. Laughlin, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Strigenz and Mr. Houston are perhaps the best in the state,” said Mike Shreves, the moderator of the mock trial team, “In addition, the students worked incredibly hard from August through December. I felt we had the best prepared students as both attorneys and witnesses. Finally, the team members really performed in sync with each other. Mock trial is truly a “team” activity where you are only as strong as your weakest link; and we had no weak link.”

When asked about the upcoming Nationals, Shreves said, “we can’t wait for Nationals. We really feel that we come from one of the toughest regions for Mock Trial in the country with Prep, Duchesne and Skutt all being from Omaha. I think going up against such tough competition during the season will help prepare us for what we face at Nationals. In addition, we want to use Duchesne’s success as a model for what we may be able to do accomplish in Hartford.”

Despite Prep’s success, it seems that a lot of students at Prep don’t completely understand how mock trial works and how teams compete. A real court case is given and the team dissects it. There are witnesses for the prosecution and witnesses for the defense, so students need to be versatile and know how to win the case from either side..Then the students prepare to argue that case on behalf of either the prosecution or the defense. The presiding judge rules on objections and keeps order. The other two attorneys have a score sheet and they grade the opening, closing, every direct examination and every cross-examination at the witness. Whoever gets the most points wins. Creighton Prep has four professional attorneys that work with the team that help and guide the students.

“The jury is made up of real attorneys who judge the case. The case isn’t really about winning or losing the argument, but who argues best.They never tell you if the prosecution or the defense wins, but they actually say this team argued the best. Different attorneys have different preferences and how they like things argued and that’s probably one of the frustrating things about it, but you just kind of learn to do what you’re gonna do and you do it as well as you can and if you do that you’ll end up on top,” said Shreves.

Last year, Prep had five mock trial teams in total, more than any other school in the state. If you want to join Creighton Prep mock trial, find Mr. Shreves in Room 102.

“I always have as many teams as I have kids who are willing to make a commitment to it,” said Shreves. “If kids want to participate and willing to come to practice and everything, we’ll find a place for them.”