Juniors Henry Hewitt, Clark Kerkstra, and Franklin Griffin quickly scribble on pieces of paper and slide them across the table, but they are not passing notes in class. They are in a mock trial competition, communicating silently as the opposing attorney speaks.

On Wednesday, March 4 at the Delaware County Courthouse, Haven’s varsity mock trial team participated in district finals. They went head-to-head with team Q8, a name given to the team to prevent bias about schools. After outstanding performances by both teams, Haven lost 4-1, as dictated by the jury.

Mock trial is a simulated version of a civil or criminal court case, acted out by students that take the roles of either an attorney or a witness.

Attorneys give opening statements and closing arguments to help establish their case. They also conduct direct examinations and cross examinations of witnesses, which can help build their own case and hurt the opposing team’s case.

Witnesses have to act in the role of someone involved in the case. This makes their role more theatrical.

“We have to memorize a ton of facts and be able to convey that in a way that’s really natural and really conversational,” freshman Ella Heisey-Terrell said. “If you’re too stiff, you’ll get a lot of points taken off.”

Attorneys and witnesses get points based on how well they perform. Each juror gets a scoring sheet and whichever team has more points from that juror gets their ballot. Whichever team gets more ballots wins the trial.

Both the varsity and JV team had been meeting twice a week in the library since September. Attorney coach Ms. Michelle Stranen helped teach the team the necessary skills for being in a trial. They participated in a scrimmage with Marple Newton’s mock trial team. They also attended the Penn tournament, similarly to last year’s season, which helped them practice and prepare while meeting different mock trial teams.

“It’s really neat, because we get exposed to teams from other counties that we don’t see in the regular season competition,” Stranen said.

Through these practices and competitions, members developed soft skills to help them during trial. Hewitt explains that they can be useful outside of the courtroom.

“You learn how to make a really convincing argument,” Hewitt said. “You learn rhetorical strategies that are super useful for whatever field you choose to go into.”

Regardless of the loss, the team honed their skills and pushed through the rigorous yet rewarding matches.

“Everyone put in a lot of really hard work just on the whole team, and I think we saw the results of that throughout the season,” Hewitt said.