As many of those reading this post know I have been fairly obsessed with mock trial since I was a sophomore in high school. Sometime I will go into how important it was in my development and all that it has meant to me, but that is mushy stuff and has no place here. What is important for this story is for you to know that a few weeks ago I judged a few rounds of Minnesota High School mock trial. Usually they don't allow law students to judge but when they asked my father to judge they told him that I could tag along and judge too. Since I have been unable to compete in mock trial as a first year law student I have been climbing up the walls like a crack addict. This is the longest I have gone without mock trial since I was 15 years old and it is a strange feeling.
One of the teams I judged was straight up spectacular. The attorney bank could have gone toe to toe with some of the better college attorneys in the country. They had some minor flaws that usually get ironed out with experience, but they were the best high school team I have seen in years. After the trial I gave my comments and they went on for a while, but they listened to every word. It was wonderful. I got to feel smart again, and have people listen to me (two feelings that are in high demand and low supply as a first yer law student). After the trial the coach got my E-mail and asked me if I might be interested in coaching next year, or at least coming by to tell the students about college mock trial. I got pretty excited. I had already been asked by a few other schools if I would be interested in coaching them next year and I didn't know how to respond.
I knew that I had to find a way to be compensated for my time. Sure, it would have been great to make a little money coaching high school mock trial but it wasn't something I was expecting. A lot of my friends who coach things are surprised that I could not get paid for my services. People who coach dance and debate often ask me how much money I am making for teaching kids how to pretend to be lawyers. The problem is one of supply and demand. Most high schools in the city have good sized coaching staffs made up completely of volunteers. A lot of the kids who compete in high school mock trial have parents that are attorneys (go figure). So parents volunteer their time and us mercenary coaches are out of a job. Luckily I am able to be compensated in other ways. My school requires each student to complete 50 hours of public service before they graduate. Luckily for me mock trial coaching can count toward this requirement.
So last Friday I met with the head coach of the school I judged (we will call them School B). She told me about the way she runs the program and how all the kids are very excited at the prospect of me coming to coach them. Everything she told me sounded very good, and I grew more and more excited to work with this group of kids. So on Sunday I took a break from doing homework to go and help them out a bit. I like to think I helped them a fair amount, but thus far I have only spent 3 hours of work time with them.
the funny thing about this is my adoption of this team has already hit the mock trial blogosphere. This morning I was sent this E-mail by the team's head coach:
(just for a little context this is from a blog which is predicting the winners of each high school region. It is written by a kid I competed against a couple of times. I think it is fair to say he is even more obsessed with mock trial than I am.)
Hey [TheHamborger],
Check out what they are saying at [the blog in question]:
"Region 11: This region was originally a mix of many recent state contenders: Apple Valley (2006), Spring Lake Park (2007), [School B] (2007), and Meadow Creek (2006 and 2008). I figured MCC and [School B] to be the main contenders, but Apple Valley provided a nice surprise, and upon retrospect it’s hard to see how I neglected to consider their regional performance prior to Round 4. Nevertheless, [School B] has the strongest showing in this region thus far if we go off pure point differential, and I wouldn’t be so concerned with the fact that they’ll be prosecution in Round 5. Here’s why: [TheHamborgler], an alum of both [My High School's] national team in 2003 as well as [My College's] acclaimed college mock trial team, has stepped in to help [School B] out. Having personally faced [TheHamborgler] in competition twice (first as a freshman in high school and then as a freshman at UMM during the National Championships last year), I have a lot of faith in his ability to inspire and lead. Apple Valley, and for that matter all the teams who will eventually go on to State, ought to be very afraid."
The kids were very excited to read this. I hope they don't get their hopes too high.. . . .
Thanks for your help this weekend. If you are free this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon, stop by!
[The Head Coach of School B]
[The Head Coach of School B]
This is a pretty cool compliment to me. I have only worked with this team for one day and already this kid is telling other teams to be scared. First of all I think other teams should have been scared of this team even before I got involved. I just hope that my help can push them over the edge. I want to go to their trial on Thursday but I am not sure if I will have the time. If they make it I think they will make some serious noise at State... at least they will if I have anything to say about it.
hopefully I can be the hero here.
No comments:
Post a Comment