Iowa Mock Trial State Competition 2012 Part 1

Well, I just got back from the Mock Trial State competition in Des Moines yesterday. It was quite truly a wonderful experience.

It was different from last year in a lot of ways, though. First of all, we were much better prepared and thus we actually did fairly well. Sebastian and Cole both got astounding witness awards, and Ryan got an astounding attorney award. In addition, the other team got seventh place over all and an award for being civil and sportsmanlike. Out of all the schools that competed this year, Marion was one of the most decorated, if not THE most decorated (in terms of number of awards, anyway). Compare this with last year, where didn't get a single award and where we didn't actually win a single round. Some of this came from putting a lot more work into Mock Trial, and some of it came from a fundamental change in coaching philosophy. The point is, Mock Trial was the life of everyone on the team.

So the first round at State was an extremely close match against Harlan. We did Government, which was our stronger side. In many ways it was a good easing into the unfamiliar territory of State. Nervousness began to fade and everyone on our two teams were pumped up for the next day. Back at the hotel, both teams had team meetings where we "talked about our feelings", after which we all went straight to bed (more or less, anyway). I luckily was in the same room as Gabe, who is pretty much the most mature person on either team. So unlike a few of the other more crowded rooms, we managed to get quite a bit of sleep.

Day two brought forth two more trials. In the second round we were matched against Urbandale, which just so happened to be the second best team in the state. Suffice to say that we lost, but I'm happy to say not too badly. For some reason, when we were against the best team we had ever faced, I think we ourselves did the very best that we had ever done. By the third round we were all exhausted after a long day of trial, but we managed to pick up another win against Wappello (which by the way won third place at State last year).

Now the thing about going to State is never about winning, because our skill isn't at that caliber yet. Instead, it's about the experience. Both in knowledge gained from competing against strong teams, and the great fun that comes with hanging out with friends. The thing is, due to the fact that some of my favorite people in the world being on my team, good times are guaranteed. In fact, virtually any time spent with these people almost always becomes a treasured memory. I mean, let's look at all of the reminiscing throughout this year I've had about last year's team. And I wasn't nearly as close to everyone as I am now! Here's hoping that the team from Marion Homeschool (or Highschool, if you want to be politically correct) will be just as good next year! And why don't we have another sentence with an exclamation point! Because exclamation points are cool! Seriously, I can't stop! Please help me!