(MOCK) TRIALS AND (TECHNICAL) TRIBULATIONS-PART 2

Feb. 26, 2 hours into trial-only 10 hours left to go.

Part one of this piece, can be found here.

First, a bit about the students of Detroit Catholic Central High School.  The number of class and extracurricular choices available to the boys is amazing.  There are 35 clubs listed in the Student Life section of the school website.  That number does not include the teams for 16 sports .  Classes begin at 8am, though there is something called Zero Hour, from 7am-8am.  Various clubs and activities meet an hour before classes start.  There is daily Mass at 7:20am.  When classes end at 2:45pm, some students leave right away, but a whole lot stay.  When our practices ended at 4:30, there were still a lot of students in the renovated library, now called the Learning Commons.

Mock Trial starts comparatively late in the school year, and many of my young men already had a full academic and extracurricular plate before our first meeting.  Practices were missed for such things as Finance Club (a big deal at school), the March for Life in Washington, meetings to approve Eagle Scout projects, sports team practices and personal training.  Many had other activities that did not start until after our practice was over.

Back in my early CC days, even though I was in the Honors Science program (hilarious considering my post-high school educational and career path), after school I was chiefly concerned with schlepping to the McNichols DSR stop, to see if I could catch a bus that went farther west than Grand River Ave.

Many CC alumni of my vintage, take pride in the memory of the blue collar, hardscrabble Outer Drive Shamrock student of yesteryear.  We did do more with less.  The world has changed a lot since then.  CC students have more assets and more options, but they take full advantage.  They have set some lofty goals for themselves.  One of my boys hopes to get a service academy appointment next year.  Another was notified of his acceptance to U of M, during our non-dress competition rehearsal.

CC once had the reputation as the "jock" school, with U of D High being the academic school.  We have a lot of sports teams and many of them do very well.  As I write this, I read that Catholic Central has just won its 11th consecutive academic team state championship.  In addition, CC is breaking ground on a $35M  STEM wing addition which will essentially double the size of the school.  For those of my generation who may not be familiar,STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  

One final stereotype that I found was not supported by the evidence.  Some keyboard PhDs post that places like Catholic Central are more like English boys private schools than the hundreds of Catholic high schools that covered the city of Detroit in the 1950s and 60s.  Not based on my experience.   My future Eagle Scout and Wolverine works a part time job at Taco Bell.  When I was a teenager, my standards for jobs weren't high (dietary department porter, "warehouse rat" at Toys R Us to name a few), but even I drew the line at places like Taco Bell.  Another team member, who aspires to go to law school, works part time in the family convenience store.   Tuition is high at CC, but a very substantial percentage of families get some form of tuition assistance.

But, as always I digress.  Back to Mock Trial.

 

After finishing the final marathon practice at 6pm Friday, February 25 (the 100th anniversary of my dad's birth), we all returned at 6:45am Saturday for the competition.  We didn't leave school until 6:30pm.  This was the first competition for 7 of my 11 team members, and it was the first regional I had been involved in since 2015 (when the majority of my guys were 7 years old).  I had no idea what to expect.

Very few of the teams entered in any given regional advance to states, and to end the suspense, we did not move on.  I am trying to be objective here, but I thought we could have advanced.  And when I learned that one of the teams I felt we had beaten, did advance, I was persuaded we should have advanced.  But, if I have learned nothing else from American presidential politics, it is to respect the system, honor the process and accept the results with dignity and civility.   We knew the material, we performed well.  I am proud of each member of my team, and they did CC proud.

A few memories from that day will continue to stand out.  I am especially proud of one of my attorneys, who, while cross-examining a witness with his inconsistent prior written statement, used the classic "Were you lying then, or are you lying now ?"  God, I loved that.

In our second trial, we were the defendants.  The presiding judge for that trial was a current sitting circuit court judge.  During the plaintiff's case, attorneys offered in evidence an undated article from an unspecified newspaper which stated that an anonymous source had indicated that the "MePhone" might be vulnerable to a hack.  We objected on the grounds of hearsay, that this article was being offered for the truth of the statement contained in it.  The judge asked the plaintiff if that was true.  Plaintiff counsel agreed that it was being offered for the truth of the statement contained in the article.  No further argument.  No hearsay rule exception offered.  The judge overruled our objection and admitted the article, without any restriction.  Further proof  that my least favorite circuit court during my litigating career, retains the title.

How much will those kids be able to bill?

At the end of a long, long day, we all met in a Zoom room and Ellen, the director of the competition, God love her, had to keep all the teams occupied while the scores from all the trials were tabulated.  One such activity was a graphic on the shared screen, asking us to fill in the blanks:  "Before Mock Trial I was__________, and now I am__________."  After 12 hours and with our mike muted, I suggested:  "Before Mock Trial I was young, and now I am old."  The boys loved that and wanted to send it in.  I prevailed on them not to.

I told the boys at the beginning of the season, my goal was not to persuade them to, or dissuade them from, pursuing a legal career.  More important, was to teach them to think on their feet, respond to changing circumstances in an adversarial environment, and to examine all sides of any issue presented to them.  These qualities would serve them well in any field they choose.

I think the boys learned a lot during the season.  As can be seen in the photo on the left, my Seniors now remind me of the executive committee of a Big Law firm, looking over the new crop of summer interns.

Truth be told, the team taught me far more than they ever learned from me.  I am proud of them and grateful to them.

The tough thing about coaching at a high school is that, though the building stays from year to year, and the coach may stay, the boys move on.  I wish them well.

Go, Shamrocks!!

Note: I learned that CC is very big on "wearables".  We needed one for the Mock Trial team.  As "Mock Trial" is kind of an odd name, I designed one with this wording:

CATHOLIC CENTRAL

LAW

MOCK TRIAL

The boys liked the design, but voted to take out Mock Trial.  "Catholic Central Law" it is.