Hoping for a strong season, Indio High's mock trial team heads to Harvard to prepare

They seem like shy teenagers, but in the courtroom they shine.

At first, the Indio High School mock trial team is unsure about getting interviewed. They go around in a circle coyly introducing their names, grade levels and positions on the team. Most are soft spoken, but one attribute stands out: Nearly the entire team has won awards for their courtroom performances.

As time goes on, their vibrant personalities fill the room. Turns out, they’re fiercely competitive and determined to be the best mock trial team in the Coachella Valley and, perhaps, Riverside County, where there are more than 20 teams.

In short, they have swagger.

“The best part of mock trial is winning and rubbing it in,” said Wyatt Stucki, a senior prosecutor and reigning team MVP bailiff.

And this weekend, the team is taking one of its first steps toward its goal: They're going to Harvard to get in fighting shape.

Last spring, Indio High was a top-eight club in the county despite the fact that the roughly 25-member team had many freshmen and other first-timers.

This year, they return an outstanding sophomore class and a cadre of award-winning seniors eager to cement their legacy as one of the best mock trial teams in school history.

“We thrive on intense competition,” said senior Victoria Sung, a defense attorney and reigning team MVP as a pre-trial attorney.

“Steel sharpens steel,” Stucki added.

Mock trial is a competition in which students simulate a trial versus another club. This season, Southern California schools will take to court the fictional case of People v. Franks, which involves thorny Fourth Amendment issues, an alleged robbery at sea and jealousy between two rival actors up for the same Broadway role.

Students estimated they spend about 10 hours per week practicing.

“I don’t think people know how hard it is,” said sophomore Angela Abrio.

“We don’t get enough credit for the work,” added sophomore Jacqueline Zamora, when comparing mock trial’s status on campus compared to other organized activities like sports.

But similar to athletes, they love the thrill of competing.

“It’s all about the adrenaline rush,” Sung said.

Their work includes memorizing the ins and outs of the case and rehearsing assigned characters including witnesses and experts.

Students receive their roles in the trial based on a fall audition process. Typically, upperclassmen get to be lawyers.

Mock trial is not just about the law. There is also a huge element of dramatic arts.

Student witnesses cannot ad lib their testimony during trials, but they still have leeway in their delivery, making it harder for the opposing team to grill them during cross-examination.

Sophomore Jessica Ramirez is regarded as one of the Indio team’s best actors. In this year’s case, Ramirez plays Jade Marquez, a 63-year-old jeweler and expert witness.

Ramirez said her skills lie as much in memorizing the facts of her testimony as in “becoming the character."

"I take a lot of pride in my presence on the stand," she said, adding she practices details like her posture and enunciation. "I need to know how I want to act."

Compared to witnesses, student lawyers spend a good portion of the preseason practicing legal strategy, preparing lines of questioning, memorizing legal precedent and writing opening and closing arguments.

The Indio club is advised by several practicing attorneys, a law school student and a law school applicant.

Competitions are judged by practicing lawyers and judges.

Club heads to Harvard

While the People v. Franks season kicks off this spring, 10 teammates and several advisors are attending a mock trial seminar this weekend at Harvard University. The trip is sponsored by the Walter Clark Legal Group.

The Harvard seminar is a rigorous event that brings together many of the best mock trial clubs in the country.

Members of the Indio High team casually referred to it as a preseason tuneup, but they also expressed apprehension about fitting in with other students — many of whom represent elite private and prep schools.

Previous Indio High mock trial alumni have gone on to receive degrees from Harvard, Stanford and other top universities, but some teammates have never had the privilege to travel to the East Coast.

While their club might not have the resources of some private schools, it thrives on an exceptional degree of community support from volunteer lawyers and philanthropists.

“It takes a village,” said French teacher and principal advisor Martha Sung.

Indio High even has a mock courtroom on campus, an extremely unusual feature for any public school.

Somewhat surprisingly, not all of the teammates want to be lawyers.

Victoria Sung, the senior lawyer and advisor’s daughter, said the skills she has learned in mock trial will help her in anything.

Those include public speaking, confidence, analytical thinking and improvisation, she explained.

Senior Destiny Casas said mock trial has taught her to remain impartial.

“In the courtroom, it doesn’t matter what you believe,” she explained. “It matters what your character believes.”

Stucki added that it’s simply rewarding to learn his Constitutional rights.

“Understanding the Fourth Amendment opens your eyes to a lot of things, like how police can act,” he said.

And, while Stucki doubled down that mock trial is all about winning, Martha Sung, as the advisor, had a different perspective about the value of participation.

“I want my students to be confident and ready for the world,” she said.

Jonathan Horwitz covers education for The Desert Sun. Reach him at jonathan.horwitz@desertsun.com or @Writes_Jonathan.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Indio High School mock trial team heads to Harvard to prepare for season