When the Grady mock trial team walked out of the final round of the 2012 National High School Mock Trial Championship in Albuquerque, N.M., they felt, in the words of sophomore timekeeper Michael Dillard, “on top of the world.”
And for good reason. After qualifying for nationals for the fourth year in a row, the team made history as the first Grady mock trial team to compete in the final round at nationals. Although they ultimately were named runners-up to Albuquerque Academy of New Mexico, they were satisfied with their performance in finals and with the hours they had put in to get there. For the seniors on the team, the outcome was the culmination of four years of hard work.
“We’ve been doing it for so long it’s just like breathing,” said senior Atiana Johnson, who competed as a witness at nationals. “Because it’s our last year, this is our last chance, so we just want to give everything.”
To prepare for nationals, the team spent weeks familiarizing themselves with the intricacies of the case, rehearsing cross-examinations, and creating believable characters to present on the witness stand. They worked in law firms, in team members’ basements, at Grady and at the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, sometimes staying as late as 12 a.m. Attorneys Carl Gebo, Cecily McLeod, Trinh Huynh, Elizabeth Campbell and Crystal Genteman guided the practices.
“I’ve never met, in my personal or professional life, people like my colleagues who coach [mock trial],” faculty adviser Brian Leahy said. “They’re some of the most intelligent, hard-working people I know.”
In the case, a congressperson was accused of hiring a hit man to kill an investigator who was looking into the conduct of a prominent corporation. The team argued on both the defense and the prosecution.
“I was two witnesses, one on each side,” sophomore Archie Kinnane said. “For the prosecution I was an FBI special agent, and then for the defense I was a computer hacker.”
Fifteen members of the team traveled to Albuquerque with Leahy, attorney coaches Gebo and Huynh, and Gebo’s mother, Phyllis Gebo, 70, who offered feedback after competition rounds and scrimmages.
“We finish [our first] scrimmage and we all go to debrief in a conference room, and Phyllis Gebo … begins yelling at us that we need to have more energy during the round,” junior attorney Troy Kleber said. “And that really stuck with us. She made us yell “We want it!” and she was yelling louder than we were.”
In addition to competing, the team went on a day trip to Santa Fe and to karaoke night at a local restaurant.
“Karaoke night was pretty bad,” Dillard said. “No one on our team sang, except [sophomore] J.D. [Capelouto] tried.”
The team will lose eight seniors to graduation, including six who competed at nationals. The members of the class of 2012, with their unusually large degree of experience, played a key role in securing the team’s fourth state title in a row. Leahy expressed hope that the team will qualify to nationals in 2013, but acknowledged that doing so would require a great deal of work.
Next year will be a “challenge” for the team, Johnson said.
“If they apply themselves they can [win state] all over again,” she said. “Everyone on our team is super talented. The only thing they don’t have is experience.”
