Members of the Bradley Tech team, front row, from left: attorney coaches Kelsey Boehm, Chelsey Metcalf, and teacher coach Kenneth Jones. Students, from left: Darlene Twitty, Zaihyonna Garner, Zaihnyuh Garner, Anaji Brooks, Kayla Black, Brennan Halsey, Debora Oquendo, and Antonio Morris.
More photos of the final round as well as team and award portraits are available on the State Bar's Facebook page.
March 21, 2018 – Milwaukee’s Bradley Tech high school mock trial team didn’t win the state competition earlier this month, or make it to the semifinals. Yet the team is, without a doubt, a winner in everyone’s book.
Team members’ tenacity and perseverance prove that life lessons are learned at all levels of competition, and that winning takes many forms.
This year, 129 teams participated in the State Bar of Wisconsin High School Mock Trial program, including Bradley Tech, which just ended its second year of competition. Scattered statewide, these teams represent both urban and rural schools of all sizes, and differing levels of experience.
A Snowy Morning in February
As Bradley Tech’s mock trial team receives the Spirit of Mock Trial award at a banquet on March 10, students, teachers, and attorney coaches from the semi-finalist teams give a lengthy standing ovation.
While most school districts provide team transportation, Bradley Tech lacks the resources, so its attorney-coaches step in to drive the students to the competitions.
Shannon Green is communications writer for the State Bar of Wisconsin, Madison. She can be reached by email or by phone at (608) 250-6135.
Early in the morning of Feb. 10 – the day after a significant snowstorm hit Milwaukee – attorney-coach Chelsey Metcalf drove three members of Bradley Tech’s mock trial team to the courthouse for four rounds of regional competition. Metcalf is a litigation associate at Foley & Lardner LLP.
En route, her vehicle was struck by another. “With the recent snowstorm and construction on the street, we could not see each other,” Metcalf said.
While no one else was seriously injured, a student suffered a broken jaw – and ended up in surgery that day.
The injured student was the team’s time keeper, and her older sister, also in the vehicle, was the team’s “star closer on the defense side,” Metcalf said.
Knowing the team would have to otherwise forfeit, the injured student’s older sister competed through the day, leaving family members to respond to the emergency.
Keeping It Together
Judge Pedro Colon of Milwaukee County Circuit Court served as one of five judges of the High School Mock Trial championship round in Madison on March 11, 2018. Joining him on the judging panel were U.S. District Court Western District Judge Stephen Crocker, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford, Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge David Wilk, and Winnebago County Circuit Court Judge John Jorgensen.
Kelsey Boehm, the team’s other attorney-coach and Metcalf’s colleague at Foley & Lardner LLP, told her to stay composed for their students, telling her “the kids need you to buck up right now.”
Needing to stay at the courthouse with the team, Metcalf describes herself as a “big mess” that entire day. “I sat in the back crying every time I got an update from the family,” Metcalf said.
Other teams kept time for Bradley Tech so it could compete. “They were really understanding about it,” Metcalf said.
And her team kept it together. “They were really amazing – and they got through the day,” she said.
Bradley Tech’s team is this year’s winner of the Spirit of Mock Trial Award. “I’m so grateful for the award,” Metcalf said. “My students face so much adversity simply to make it to team practice. They’re really strong, awesome kids.”
Headed to Reno
Shorewood High School, 2018 High School Mock Trial State Champs. Team members include, from left, front row: Harris McCafferty, Katie Cheever, Shilei Bell-Lipsey, Lena Essak, Bella Riviera. Back row: Nick Howland, Brendan Fardella, Cal Curran, Thomas (Owen) Manion, and Will Aldana. Debra Schwinn and Jasmyn Burston are the team’s teacher coaches, and Attorney Nathan Bayer serves as attorney coach.
Twenty-two teams statewide competed in semifinal rounds in Madison on March 9 and 10. And on March 11, Shorewood High School’s mock trial team claimed its fourth state mock trial title, defeating D.C. Everest High School in the final round of the annual competition. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker, a longtime mock trial volunteer, served as presiding judge over the final round held in the Wisconsin Supreme Court Hearing Room.
“The judges and spectators alike were impressed by the knowledge and skill of both teams,” said State Bar of Wisconsin Mock Trial Chair Emily Lonergan.
Shorewood will represent Wisconsin at the 2018 National Mock Trial Championship, May 10-12 in Reno, Nevada.
“Once again the level of competition at the semifinal tournament was exceptional,” Lonergan said. “All of the hard work that the students and coaches put in throughout the season was readily apparent throughout the weekend.”
The Mock Trial program is funded by a generous grant from the Wisconsin Law Foundation, the charitable arm of the State Bar of Wisconsin, supporting law-related education and public service programs statewide.
