Sitka High Mock Trial state championship team members pose in the Alaska Supreme Court with their trophy. Team members and coaches are, from left, Dimitri Bennett, Jamison Dunn, Zoe Trafton, Danica Majeski, Liam Laybourn, coach Howard Wayne, coach Hannah Marx, coach Ashley Nessler, Sally Everson, Isabelle Schmetzer, Sam McLaughlin, Kelcey Simic, Francis Myers, Aiden LaFriniere and Felix Myers. (Photo provided)
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka High’s mock trial team piled up more top prizes in early April, winning honors for both A and B teams at the 2023 Alaska High School Mock Trial Competition in Anchorage.
Team member Isabelle Schmetzer attributed the teams’ successes to solid scrimmaging, “a lot of practice” and “determination.”
“I think that determination helped carry us through,” she said.
Sitka High mock trial is coached by history teacher Howard Wayne, and attorney Hannah Marx, a law clerk for Sitka Superior Court Judge Jude Pate, who recently was named a justice of the state Supreme Court. Blatchley Middle School teacher Ashley Nessler is assistant coach.
In mock trial, teams of attorneys and witnesses compete against each other under the rules of actual courtroom procedure in fictitious civil or criminal trials. The case is outlined to teams in advance to give them a chance to practice prior to the tournament. This year the case was a murder trial.
The winning team was Sitka High team A: Schmetzer, Felix Myers and Jamison Dunn as attorneys, and Kelcey Simic, Zoe Trafton and Sam McLaughlin as witnesses.
Taking third prize was Sitka High team B: attorneys Francis Myers, Dimitri Bennett, Aiden LaFriniere, and Danica Majeski, Sally Everson and Liam Laybourn as witnesses.
Trafton won the Super Witness Award, which is given to the best witness, selected by all judges in two or more trials.
Francis Myers won the Outstanding Attorney Award, which is given to the outstanding attorney as chosen by three judges in one room.
Myers said the case was a challenging one, in which an attorney had to argue the guilt of the defendant (the fictitious Jamie Abbott), and also be able to represent the defense, arguing that the state had not proven its case for conviction.
“You have to play both sides of the case,” which in this instance is whether Abbott paid someone to murder someone else, Myers said. “All the evidence was very circumstantial because the police officers never found the murder weapon ... There were so many things that were circumstantial. And in a short time span of only an hour and a half it’s difficult to prove someone beyond a reasonable doubt is guilty. The prosecution has the highest burden of proof and not a lot of evidence to back it up, so it was really hard to win prosecution.”
The contest is a round robin tournament, with the four teams with the most points from four rounds of trials advancing to the semifinals.
West Anchorage placed second and West Valley of Fairbanks was fourth.
Schmetzer, who is on the state champion drama, debate, forensics squad, said her greatest accomplishment was finishing the year as an attorney.
“It was something completely new, but Mr. Wayne put me in the role and encouraged me,” the SHS junior said. “It showed me a whole new side of mock trial.” In the past she has been on the team as a witness.
She said that she found that arguing the prosecution’s side was more challenging, since it required attorneys to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, especially as the defense comes in “sowing little seeds of doubt.”
Francis Myers said what he enjoyed most about the activity was not only working with close friends but learning about the law, and other things he didn’t know before.
“Working with my brother (Felix) and other close friends was the great part for me,” Francis said.
Wayne was a mock trial coach in Minnesota, where he was a teacher before coming to Sitka. He was Sitka High principal from 2005 to 2010, and encouraged his sister, SHS English teacher Stacey Wayne, to start a mock trial team here. He thought it would be a good fit for a school that already had a state champion DDF team.
“She took off with it,” said Howard Wayne, who has now coached here for about a decade. Stacey Wayne coached the first Sitka High mock trial state championship team about 10 years ago.
He attributed the team’s success to having enough kids turn out for mock trial that two teams can be fielded and they can try out arguments against each other.
“Every time we do it, we learn more,” Wayne said. “So that’s the beauty of it.”
The coach said he was pleased to have two teams in the top three at state, and that Team B nearly beat the West Anchorage team for second place.
“It was really close – there were three judges and one of the judges had them winning clearly and if one of the other judges had seen it the same way they would’ve won.”
Wayne said Sitka’s mock trial attorneys are “the best trained in the state.”
“They have a better understanding of the rules of evidence and procedure,” he said. “We’ve always worked with Judge Pate, and this year with Hannah Marx. She came to every practice. When our students are in the courtroom and they’re arguing the merits of an objection they don’t just have one legal precedent to support what they’re doing – they usually have two or three. So if a judge disagrees with them one, they can go to their second argument or third. And I think that’s what sets them apart from other teams.”
Wayne expressed thanks to Judge Pate and city attorney Brian Hanson for volunteering to serve as judges in the scrimmages, and for making recommendations for attorneys and witnesses. He also cited Ashley Nessler for her work as assistant coach. Nessler began working with the Sitka High mock trial as an Americorps volunteer, and now as a teacher has introduced mock trial to Blatchley, which should help keep the team strong when those middle schoolers move up to SHS, Wayne said.
