On Sunday, March 1, Oak Park High School’s Mock Trial team advanced to the top two finals of Ventura County’s annual mock trial competition. On Tuesday, March 3, at the Camarillo Village at the Park, the judges announced the winners with the black team placing second in the overall competition.
“I was so proud of my team for getting second, and our JV team who got eighth place,” senior and captain Cydney Neale said.“This year, both our teams had the most amount of individual awards. For the past four years I’ve been here, we usually receive one or two individual awards a year, but this year, seven of us got awards. So that was just really impressive.”
While competing against other schools across the county, the tournament was both challenging and rewarding.
“A lot of us were really stressed out, because most of us are seniors, juniors and sophomores,” junior Lila Marshall said. “I am so proud of how quickly [our team] adjusted to the competition.”
The competition spanned the course of two weeks, with each team advancing to another round if they won.
“It’s a 10 hour day, because you have to wake up really early, and go out to the Ventura County Courthouse, for around 10 hours or eight hours, and then come back and practice again for the next day,” Marshall said.
With months of preparation, the team built a foundation in mock trial before the county tournament begins.
“It’s a lot of practice, especially during the first couple months, where we’re learning about what mock trial is,” Neale said. “Then in September, we get our case, and start analyzing it, annotating it and creating content. Throughout the year, we also do scrimmages.”
The team is proud of their overall performance, despite their disappointment in not winning first place.
“I saw the effort we put in, how good our content was, and there was really no doubt in my mind that we were going to win that round,” Marshall said. “So to find out that we got second yesterday was definitely disappointing. I think a lot of the seniors were very sad because it’s their last trial ever. But again, I can’t help but still be proud of us, because we definitely put everything we could out there and tried our best.”
While the season has come to an end, the mock trial team is looking forward to next year and encouraging students to join.
“Mock trial is unique, especially for Oak Park, in the way, where it harnesses and harbors a group dynamic, ” Marshall said. “Instead of being like every man for himself, we all work together, and it’s a team sport. We get scored as a team, and not as individuals. I’ve made some lifelong friends in mock trial, and I can confidently say it’s my favorite class.
