EVERETT — Each time she is about to speak to a courtroom full of people, high school senior Jenny Daviscourt feels like she’s on a roller coaster.
Daviscourt, with her team from Archbishop Murphy High School, competed against five other teams in the county’s mock trial championship at the Denney Juvenile Justice Center on Saturday.
“You get that feeling in your stomach … 100 eyes are looking at you and you are the only one talking,” she said Saturday afternoon as team members waited in the lobby to hear the results.
In mock trials, students act out and argue a fictitious case in front of a judge, said Linda Krese, a Snohomish County Superior Court judge who coordinates the program. Students get to see both sides and play attorneys and witnesses.
Daviscourt played an attorney, a role that requires a lot of memorization, quick thinking and public speaking skills. She looked calm. “You did the best you could at the time, why beat yourself over something you can’t change,” she said.
Two teams from Archbishop Murphy, two from Marysville-Pilchuck and one each from Meadowdale and Stillaguamish Valley high schools competed Saturday for a spot in the state championship in Olympia at the end of March.
Roger Brodniak, mock trial coach at Murphy, said students learn skills useful in every profession from preaching to sales. During the countless hours students put into the mock trials, they learn logic and research, public speaking and thinking on their feet.
“When kids get to debate like that, they develop a passion for standing up for what they believe in,” Brodniak said.
That passion draws students from different social groups who probably wouldn’t be mixing with each other otherwise, he said. Daviscourt, for example, is the captain of the school’s cheer team, and one of her teammates is in math club. Mock trials give them an opportunity to bond.
And no wonder the club attracts some of the school’s most competitive students.
“A lot of attention in high school is focused on athletic ability, but I like to be able to compete in logic,” said senior Liam Hausmann, who also played an attorney. “When you win, it’s a great feeling.”
His team ranked first Saturday.
Hausmann, Daviscourt and their teammates will face some tough competition in Olympia, Judge Linda Krese said. Some schools in King County have had the program a lot longer.
“I’d really like to see a team from Snohomish County win the state title,” Krese said.
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
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