By Alex Kirshner ’18
THE ROUNDUP
The Mock Trial club had one of their three teams advance to the state finals at the Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse on April 1.
The team consisted of Cooper Ryan ’17, Will Mulkern ’17, Noah Sugden ’17, Zach McCarthy ’17, Manny Alemany ’18 and Robert Baransaka ’18.
All three of Brophy’s teams took part in the regional event two weeks ago, according to the club’s moderator Mr. Mike Welty, but the other two teams were unable to advance to the state finals.
“The region competition is really the only part of the year that matters,” Mr. Welty said. “Everything else is just practice.”
There are eight regions throughout the state, and two teams from each region advance to the state finals.
Four of the six members of the Red team, which is the name of the team that advanced to state, are seniors.
Mr. Welty said that he expects both Baransaka and Alemany to be leaders for next year.
“Usually, whatever juniors are on the top team almost invariably end up leading the team next year,” he said. “When we’re putting our team together for next year I can imagine that Robert and Manny will be two of our big players.”
There is no president of the club, but Mulkern and Ryan served as co-leaders.
“They’re sort of in charge of organizing events and rallying the troops,” Welty said.
Ryan, who is a senior, said that Mock Trial is something that not a lot of people know about on campus.
“It’s an interesting sport that people should learn more about,” he said. “It’s the intellectual contact sport.”
While many people do not know about Mock Trial, Brophy’s mock trial club is one of the biggest ones in the state.
“Most schools only have one team, so having three teams is pretty rare,” Ryan said.
The team was given a case to debate in November, and it is used all the way through the state finals.
“This year was a felony murder and arson case,” Ryan said.
The team did not finish in the top four, and it is still too early for them to know exactly what place they came in.
Mr. Welty said that, while the team did not finish in the top four, he still believes that they are one of the most talented teams in the state.
