Tate High School Mock Trial Team Wins Circuit Competition

March 18, 2008

Tate High School’s Mock Trial Team won the Mock Trial Competition in last week’s Circuit I Championship. Circuit I includes Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Escambia counties. Team members are Kelly Hawthorne, Collin Metcalf, Nikki Guntner, John Barlow, Brittany Nunnelee, and Brittany Hammock.

The Florida Law Related Education Association gives each competing school the mock trial problem and it is the individual school’s job to present the case as the prosecution and as the defense in the way they believe is most effective. The team has to perform each side depending on the round. The students learn objections, questioning techniques and how to perform opening statements and closing arguments. Kelly Krostag and Jonathan Blackburn coach the team, and attorney Stephen Hogan also volunteers as a coach. Blackburn is a former member of the Mock Trial Team.

The team represented the School District of Escambia County in this Circuit I level of competition, and competed against teams from Navarre High School and Catholic High School. The students argued their case in front of the Honorable Judge Goodman and Honorable Judge Rogers, and other attorneys from Pensacola served as judges and volunteered to judge
the local tournament. The tournament was sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division, and Antonio Bruni from the law firm of McConnaughhay, Duffy, Coonrod, Pope, and Weaver organized the event.

The Mock Trial Team will next compete in the state level competition to be held in Orlando in April. This is the fourth time that the Tate team has won the Circuit I championship, and in 2001 the team was state champions and national finalists.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News