ETHS Mock Trial Team Wins 2021 ISBA State Championship

EVANSTON, IL — The mock trial team from Evanston Township High School is headed to the national championships after taking first place in this month's Illinois State Bar Association tournament.

The win marks the first state title for the ETHS mock trial team, which has consistently been ranked among the best programs in the state over the past decade. The team finished in third place in the most recent ISBA tournament held two years ago. Last year's state championships were canceled due to the coronavirus.

Coach Kevin Kappock said the 10-person ETHS squad was an experienced one.

"This is a really accomplished team that has been in the top since they were freshman, and it's a female-dominated team," Kappock said.

"Eight of the 10 students are women, and they've been in the top eight since their freshman year," he told Patch. "They've done a lot of work, and I'm really proud of everything they've done, it's a tremendous accomplishment."

The entire season has been conducted remotely over video teleconferencing software, eliminating the psychical aspect of being able to walk around a courtroom and changing the dynamics of mock trial practice and competition.

"It takes away the team aspect of it, where we're used to being a team, being in the room together. Everybody's individual, on their own, working from their home," Kappock said.

The mock trial team, which meets twice a week after school, attracted more students this year during entirely remote learning, the coach said.

Hybrid learning is due to launch at ETHS for the first time next month. Administrators plan to rotate four groups, each consisting of about quarter of students who have opted in to on-campus instruction, in the school building for two days of in-person classes every fortnight.

In past years, Kappock said, the team has about 15 participants. But it started the 2020-21 season back in November with about 25 students, enough to field three teams for a time.

In a mock trial competition, the same trial is conducted twice, with two teams playing each side — the prosecution or plaintiff and the defense. Team members portray witnesses and attorneys. The role of the judge and jury is portrayed by mostly sitting judges and volunteer attorneys.

While the shift to a remote format has brought some major changes to the way arguments and evidence are presented during competition, the changes to mock trial mirror challenges faced by actual courts due to COVID-19.

"They've had to adapt just as real courtrooms have had to adapt," Kappock said. "That's been said by a few of the judges that we've worked with this year: 'My courtroom is virtual.' So the kids adapted really well to doing it virtually."

With everyone being conducted remotely, ETHS senior Josie Hansen said the team atmosphere has changed, though mock trial is more practical to conduct remotely than some other extracurricular activities.

"There's nothing better than that feeling of walking into the courtroom with your team, with your briefcase, meeting the other team, shaking their hands," said Hansen, one of the team's captains for the past two years.

The night before the team's second-round match against local rival Niles West High School at the state finals, Hansen said she and her close friend and co-captain — Eloisa Tirres, who was honored with an outstanding attorney award at both the 2019 and 2021 ISBA championships — put in some final preparations.

"We literally Facetimed for about four hours that night and went through my cross, went through my whole close — and I know that my other team members were grinding it out on Saturday night," Hansen said.

After the next day's championship-winning trial performance, an air of excitement spread amongst the team ahead of the announcement of results.

"'You guys stepped it up times 10,'" she recalled the team's coaches saying. "'That was so much better that yesterday and yesterday was already good.'"

In addition to co-captains Hansen, Tirres and Grace McGinley, the state champion 2021 ETHS mock trial squad included India Aaron, Rory Behm, Kitty Colton, Clive Harvey, Jessie Kaiser, Sydney Ter Molen and Coco Walker.

At the virtual award ceremony, ETHS team members happened to be the only team that had activated their cameras, Hansen said. It turned out to be a fortuitous coincidence.

"So when they announced that we were first place, I got to see all of team members' reaction, which is really funny, and all of our jaws kind of just dropped," she said.

"It being virtual, it's a little shock to the system — they're like, 'OK, you're first place. Goodbye, you can hop off the Zoom,' and then we're all kind of sitting there in disbelief. Then we got on our own Zoom, and it was just this moment of us all staring at each other on the computer, screaming, some of us were tearing up," Hansen said.

"It was very, very exciting, and I wish we could have been in person for that moment, but it was still very exciting all the same."

After spending the last several months learning the ins and outs of a drug-induced homicide case to prepare for the state tournament, team members are expecting to soon learn the details of the case they will be arguing at the National High School Mock Trial Championship, which will be held remotely from Evansville, Indiana, from May 13 to May 15.