Worthington Kilbourne's mock trial team won their districts competition this past weekend and are now heading to regionals. The mock trial team meets on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and sometimes Thursdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. They are coached by Mr. Eric Hershberger, who is a lawyer in the Worthington area.
"He's a great guy," Danya Mansour, a member of the mock trial team, comments about Mr. Hershberger. "He's really good at [honing] our ability for public speaking since it's really important in mock trial, . . . and being a very good support system and educating us on mock trial since it's our first year competing."
At the beginning of the season, which is around September, the Ohio Mock Trial Association distributes cases and the mock trial team practices based on those cases. The team is split into defense and prosecution, and two people are assigned as attorneys and two other people are assigned as witnesses. They prep their case, arrange how they want to present it, and go to a few scrimmages before competing in competitions. First is districts, then regionals, and finally, states.
"If you have any interest in law, it's great practice to see what it would be like. It's also great because it definitely makes your public speaking skills better . . . it also improves your writing skills, and I think it's just overall a really good, cohesive program to get kids ready for public speaking," Mansour says.
The WKHS mock trial team competes at regionals on February 17th. According to Mansour, there will be lots of competitive schools competing in regionals, such as Upper Arlington, Walnut Hills and others that have been competing for the past few years. "The past few years have been virtual and Mr. Hershberger didn't want to compete [virtually], so we're kind of a new team, but we are hoping to win."