Quincy University‘s Mock Trial team has been practicing their cases for the upcoming regionals which will be held at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The cases center around an art heist. The defendants are a young person who was personally involved in the robbery and a millionaire who is suspected of orchestrating the robbery. The cases have three attorneys at a time, and they call on their witnesses for direct examination and then cross examination, with prosecution having the first turn.

“The purpose of Mock Trial is twofold. For one, it’s a fun group activity, people get to know each other, but also an educational one that familiarizes people with the law and also prepares people who want to be attorneys or go to law school,” Jack Urbanciz, junior, said.

Members of the Mock Trial team meet for an hour and a half, every Tuesday and Thursday night. Sometimes, members meet off hours to go over their direct and cross examinations.

Urbanciz says anyone can join Mock Trial, as Mock Trial is for anyone who is interested in the law, how the court system works, or even an interest in theater. Participants can also win individual awards for being exceptional as a witness or as an attorney, or win team awards if the team performs collectively well. Urbanciz himself won an award last semester for best attorney and an award at the start of this semester for best witness.

“I was asked by one of our other mock trial people to just come and watch, and I ended up getting roped up into it,” said Annie O’Dear. “It is more of a team sport because we do go away to tournaments and compete.”

“I think, out of all the team members we currently have, only half of them have any interest in going to law school at all,” Daniel Schild, sophomore, said. “You can do it as a theater major. I have even dragged kids from the high school to do it before. It’s for anyone that has even the smallest bit of interest in our system or theater in general.”

After competing in several tournaments and cycling through different testimonies, the team is prepared to compete in the regionals.

“Our first semester and the first part of our second semester tend to be the regular games and what have you, whereas regionals and onwards are basically the Mock Trial equivalent of a post season,” Urbanciz said. “This is like our version of the playoffs. The better and better that you do, you go to a tournament series called ORCS, and if you do really well you go to our national tournament, where you have different schools competing nationally against each other.”

“I’m very nervous. I mean, I’m excited, but very nervous, because it is my first time ever doing Mock Trial. I don’t know what to expect,” O’Dear said. “I’m hoping it’s like other tournaments that we’ve done, but with it being regionals, we have a lot more to bring and we have a lot more to do.”

“Regionals are a big challenge. So, we study this case to our hearts’ content. We go forth and we put in the effort to get it down to the best of our ability. Then, regionals come around and we get to perform like never before,” Schild said. “We get to put in a hundred percent and then some to really let other schools know, especially ’cause we’re not a super big school, that ‘Hey, we’re Quincy University, and we’re good at what we do.’ “

The Mock Trial team will be competing in regionals in Des Moines, Iowa on Feb. 16–18.