2 Delaware teams participate in National High School Mock Trial Championship in Wilmington
Delaware is playing host to this year's National High School Mock Trial Championship, which will be held at the Leonard L. Williams Courthouse in Wilmington on Friday and Saturday.
As host of the annual event, two Delaware high schools will get to compete in the contest this year: Charter School of Wilmington, which won the state's mock trial championship, and Newark Charter, which came in second in the February statewide competition.
"The fact that I would be able to participate in nationals was too exciting to contemplate the night I found out," said 18-year-old Molly Shay, a Newark Charter School senior who has been a starting lawyer for her school's mock trial team since her freshman year. Shay, who is the team's captain, said the school had never done better than sixth place in the state events. "But once I had time to think about, the intense amount of stress that preparing for nationals would entail finally occurred to me.
"With trepidation, I agreed to prepare for nationals with my team."
The national event, now celebrating its 40th anniversary, will draw more than 450 students from 48 high school from around the country, as well as South Korea and Northern Marianas Islands. Teams will arrive on Thursday and participate in a variety of preliminary activities at the Wilmington Riverfront, including a pin exchange where all teams will exchange pins from their home state or country.
The event is expected to give a $3 million economic boost to the city, according to court officials.
"Our city is honored to host the 40th anniversary of the National Mock Trial Championship and offers a warm Wilmington welcome to high school students from around the country and the world, as well as to their families and friends and their attorney coaches," Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki said. "Delaware is known and respected far and wide for its fair and thorough judicial system, so this is a perfect setting for the tough court competition that is about to get underway.
"More than a thousand people are coming to Wilmington for this championship which makes this one of the largest single-event gatherings of the year. We thank the organizers and the Delaware court system for producing what will be an outstanding competition. Thank you for visiting and please enjoy our beautiful city and all of its many amenities."
The competition starts at 9 a.m. Friday at courthouse, located at 500 N. King St. Teams will compete in real courtrooms, often with real judges presiding.
The teams will will go through four rounds before the two finalists are announced on Saturday at the Doubletree Hotel in Wilmington.
The two final teams will then return to the courthouse for a final round at 5 p.m. Saturday that will be presided over by three Delaware Supreme Court justices — a live stream of the proceedings will available from the courthouse.
Following that final round, the winner will be announced about 7:45 p.m., along with other awards at a dinner at the Chase Center on the Riverfront.
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This is just the second time in the 33 years since Delaware has participated in the competition the state has hosted the national championship. The previous year was in 2008.
While Delaware has come close, placing second one year, no Delaware team has ever taken the national championship.
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Because there were an odd number of teams, Delaware will have two teams in the competition.
"It's rather surreal that my team will be participating in nationals for the first time," Shay said, adding their practices have been structured differently than they usually are when they prepare for state competitions.
"Preparing for [state] is stressful enough on its own when we have three months and a team of twelve students to prepare," she said. "For nationals, we had barely over a month and a team of only eight to prepare."
This year's problem is one from civil litigation and appropriate to Delaware. It involves a corporate shareholder dispute over cellphone cases, created by a company called QuickPhone led by a popular and charismatic owner Bree Plaza. While initially popular, the phone cases fell apart in extreme heat and caused lasting neurological damage to users, a development that ultimately bankrupted the company.
In the lawsuit, a group of rabid Plaza fans, allege Plaza did not in fact run the company, misleading them into buying stock, and that her negligence as CEO led to the failure of the company and cost them millions.
Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Wilmington hosts National High School Mock Trial Championship Fri, Sat
