The Breakers mock trial team just finished a wild season with a lot of twists and turns. For those that don’t know, mock trial is an extracurricular club that puts on a whole criminal case (just like lawyers do in court).  There are three main roles: trial attorney, pre-trial attorney, and witness, and each has their own vital tasks. First, the trial attorney starts by giving an opening statement, then asks their witness questions on direct examination. After that, the opposing counsel gets to ask their witnesses questions. When both sides complete their questions to their own witness, they can ask questions to each other’s witnesses, which is called cross examination. The second role on the team is pre-trial. In pre-trial you argue what evidence should be allowed to be presented at the trial. The pre-trial attorneys start by arguing their main legal points then after both sides do that they have a chance to argue again, which is called the rebuttal. Finally, the team has witnesses, who are the people that answer the attorneys’ questions. The competition is held at the Monterey County Superior Court before Monterey County judges.

Now to the important part— how PGHS did this year in county competition? In the first round the prosecution team went against a skilled team in Gonzales, but won with a good showing all around. The final score was 50.5% to 49.5%. In the next round, the defense team went against York, another team expected to give the team trouble, but PGHS had a dominating win 52.5% to 47.5%. In the penultimate round of the first phase of the competition, PGHS went against Carmel— a really good team that has prevented PG from reaching that state competition since its creation. This match was the only one the team lost in the first stage of the competition, with PG losing 52.5% to 47.5%. In the final match of the first round, PGHS went up against Santa Catalina.  This match was a really close one with PG winning 51% to 49%. The win against Santa Catalina allowed them to slip into the semi-finals.  The final four teams in the County competition were PG, Rancho San Juan, Palma, and Carmel.

Since the team had made it so far, they had to face off with Carmel once more. In this match they did an amazing job, with it being our closest match against Carmel in the last four years, but ultimately falling in a very narrow 50.3% to 49.7% loss. Considering that PGHS did so well this year we have a great chance to beat Carmel and make it to state next year with senior Walter Schramm saying: “It was better than expected and we’re set up to do even better next year.” Overall, it was a great year for mock trial.