This week, HerCampus UCLA is bringing you something a little less conventional for your Campus Celebrity: meet UCLA’s Mock Trial Team, ten students who just recently went to Orlando, FL to compete in the National Mock Trial Tournament…and won the whole thing!
(Team members from left to right: Kyle, Tim, Iain, Philip, Connor, Lena, Elsie, Caroline, Callie; not pictured: Tiffany)
Since they competed against some pretty stellar schools to get their championship trophy (including NYU and Princeton in the final round), we decided to ask the team a little bit about how they managed to get to this point.
How many teams compete for the National Championship?
At the start of the season, there are 650 teams registered through AMTA (American Mock Trial Association) who are competing. Over the course of the year, teams compete at tournaments, and only a certain number are extended invitations to keep competing. There were 48 teams who were competing in Orlando this year.
How do you prepare for mock trial?
There’s definitely a lot of practice time that’s put in. We usually spend anywhere from 10 – 20 hours a week preparing before a tournament. Everyone sets their own practice schedule, but we try to work with each other as much as possible (since it is a team sport), and we’ll have practices just about every night of the week.
When do you start practicing for a tournament like Nationals?
Well, there’s a case that’s released every year in August, and that’s when we start preparing. We go to some invitationals during the Fall and early part of Winter, before the competitive season starts gearing up. After invitationals end, you have regionals (which are self-explanatory) and then what’s called ORCS (Opening Round Championship Series). You need to be invited to attend ORCS by placing in the top eight teams at a regional tournament, and then to advance to Nationals (in April), you’ve gotta get a top-six finishing spot in ORCS.
What’s the team dynamic like outside practice and competition?
It’s incredible – we’re lucky enough to have a team that’s full of really fun and really smart people, so that means that we enjoy each other’s company, even when we aren’t competing. Our team will go out to dinner together, have game nights, go see movies – some of our members even live together?
Is this the first time your team has won the National Championship?
Actually, no. This is the fourth year we’ve won it, and that’s all been in the past ten years, so we’re hoping to keep what’s already a strong program going.
How do you pick your members?
Every Fall, we hold open tryouts and look for new talent. We usually end up taking on about 20 new members, who will usually compete on our JV teams in their first year, but every now and then, someone goes straight to the top!
To be sure, it’s not the most conventional activity, but these students definitely bring the Bruin Pride to a national level! To learn more about the UCLA Mock Trial Program, you can visit their website by clicking here. Congrats to these new Campus Celebrities!