Earlier this month the Porter High School mock trial team got the opportunity to compete in the Dallas Bar Association state competition.

In this competition, 24 mock trial teams across the state of Texas competed in a simulated court case over a case they received back in October. The team traveled to Dallas in order to compete in this tough competition, the rounds were done in a courthouse to get teams to experience what it is really like being in the courtroom.

Overall this competition is unlike no other, the Porter mock trial team competed against many advanced schools that really specialized in this. All but two of the members had previously competed in this competition so for the rest of the members, this was a new and quite intimidating experience. Besides that, the team used this as an opportunity to learn and grow their knowledge, that way next year there will be much more improvement.

¨The competition was back to the pre-COVID levels, and we had a team of almost entirely new competitors compared to last year’s district, so we took a small step back in a few areas, like speech.  We lost two medalists from last year in speech but made strides in other areas, especially in terms of our participation and scores. The team did a great job of handling that and seems to understand and appreciate that this was a growth year; lots of students learned their events this year, with an eye on being especially competitive next year and the following year. I’m very excited about the future of our team and the excellent students that comprise it!¨ said Mr. Justin Levy, Mock Trial coach and teacher.

Regardless of experience or not, everyone put forth their best efforts and fought hard throughout the rounds. The competition itself has given the team a great idea and preparation in order to improve for this next upcoming year. Experiencing high levels of competition and how each team portrays their side of the case helps the Porter team to explore different ideas and ways to better their rounds.

¨I think that this year was really a learning experience for all of us, and I hope that now that we know what the expectations are we can really work on perfecting them,¨ team captain, Coral Newsome said regarding her thoughts for next year.

All in itself we should all be proud of the mock trial team for this great achievement and should be expecting big improvement for this upcoming year.