Mock Trial team wins at Quincy tournament

Nov. 18, 2004
By Christine Mastalio
Features Editor

Now another trophy can call St. Ambrose home. This victory, however, was won in a courtroom instead of on the football field. The St. Ambrose University mock trial team swept the Quincy Riverside Classic Invitational Tournament on Oct. 30. St. Ambrose took first place out of 14 teams. Other teams participating included the University of Illinois, Truman State University and Bradley University.

The tournament was held in the Quincy courthouse and judged by actual judges. Two St. Ambrose students won individual awards. Junior Sam Bailey won best attorney at the tournament.

“Attorneys are usually judged on their courtroom presence, their handle on the case, what they know about the facts, and how they handle witnesses,” Bailey said.

Freshman Emily Green was awarded best witness.

“If you have someone playing a pathologist they need to create the air of a doctor,” Bailey said. “They need to convince you right off the bat that (a) they are a respected doctor in the medical field and (b) you can trust what they’re saying by how they say it. It’s one of the tougher things to do.”

Most mock trial tournaments consist of four rounds. Teams play both sides of the case twice. Teams are first matched by lottery and then power paired. Winning teams will play winning teams in the second round and losing teams are paired with losing teams. Point values are also awarded to figure in the final winner.

The tournament in Quincy was a two round tournament. St. Ambrose defeated Quincy University by winning both ballots from the two judges and went on to beat Truman State and win the whole tournament.

Ambrose’s team has nine students, who have to learn both the plaintiff’s and defendant’s side of the case. Every other year is a criminal trial. This year’s case is Kissner v. Polk General Hospital and involves an injured golfer suing the hospital for releasing a violent patient. Students work on the case all year, preparing for the regional tournament.

Placement at regionals determines whether or not a team will go to the national tournament.

“We missed making it to the national tournament by one point last year, which would have been unprecedented for a first year team to go that far,” political science professor and team advisor Nathan Schlueter said.

This year’s team is shooting to go even further.

“Of course all of our efforts are geared toward getting to the national tournament and winning it,” Schlueter said. “That’s like making it to the NCAA finals in basketball, but we’ve got a long way to go before we get there.”

At the beginning of the season, teams across the country are given a notebook full of case information. This includes witness affidavits, physical evidence, legal documents, charges and case law based on previous state supreme court precedents.

All the law is from the fictional state of Midlands and the documents are representative of what one would find in an actual case, Bailey said.

“Mock trial is the closest you’re going to come to a sport without being a sport,” Bailey said. “It builds an incredible amount of teamwork. The best friends I’ve had at Ambrose have been through mock trial. It’s something that as you’re doing it you can feel yourself growing into a part.”

Mock trial counts as a one credit hour, three hundred level general education political science course at St. Ambrose. The class is four hours a week, but students can spend an additional three to six hours preparing.

“I think it looks good on a transcript,” Schlueter said. “People who know about intercollegiate mock trial know how arduous it is and what kind of talent it takes to be part of it.”

The team is in its infancy at St. Ambrose. Schlueter started the team in the fall of 2003. A local attorney from Lane and Waterman, Rand Wonio, also coaches the team. The founding team won best new mock trial team of 2003. The immediate success hasn’t gone to their heads though.

“Those characters of virtue are really important to us,” Schlueter said. “We don’t simply put the best students in the best roles and keep them there. We rotate so everyone has an opportunity to play a role, even if it means we don’t win.”

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