The Community High School Mock Trial Program has been tremendously successful so far this year. On Feb. 28 at the Washtenaw Regional Tournament, the A Team placed first, and the B Team finished closed behind at second.

The A Team received an automatic bid to the State Tournament on March 28 at the Veterans Memorial Courthouse in Lansing. The A Team joined the seven teams who received an automatic bid, while the B Team was to be considered for the two wildcard bids. But it wasn’t until March 15 that the B Team discovered that they had received a wildcard bid and would join the ten team state tournament.

“The Regional Tournament was an awesome success,” said CHS social studies teacher and Mock Trial Coach, Chloe Root. Not only did both teams win all four of their trials, but also impressively won every single ballot from each of the three judges that scored each trial.

Only one team received a guaranteed bid to the State Tournament from the Washtenaw Regional Tournament because of the limited number of teams. Because of this, the runner-up teams from each Regional Tournament were considered for the two wildcard bids with criteria that consisted mostly of the team’s total points, the number of ballots won, and the records of the teams they faced. The B Team’s outstanding performance in the Regional Tournament earned them a wildcard bid.

This year already seems to be another successful year for the Mock Trial program at CHS. Although CHS does not have a substantial student body to recruit from compared to many Michigan schools who have mock trial teams, the program has a long history of success.

“Community High School is not a very large large school but we’re still sending two out of the ten teams to States,” said CHS Senior and A Team lawyer, Lynus Zullo.

Root is hopeful that both teams will advance to the second round of the State Tournament, but for now they are busy polishing their cases. Both teams are busy practicing amongst themselves and against one another , as well as meeting one on one with coaches in order to give themselves a better shot at back to back state championships.

Zullo is also optimistic about the program’s success, but for now is only focused on preparing himself and his teammates for the tournament.

“Everything can be made better,” Zullo said. “We’re looking to improve those minor details that make a good team a great team.”