Mock Trial Triumph!

Members of Springs’ Mock Trial Team will advance for the third year in a row to nationals after being named the No. 1 plaintiff team and best overall team in the state at the 2016 Alabama YMCA Youth Judicial Program.
 
A panel of 21 attorneys and judges named the plaintiff team of Max Klapow ’17, Davis Tyler-Dudley ’17, Taylor Hinch ’17, Liz Jones ’18, Chandler Pulliam ’17, and Matthew Lash ’17 overall state champions after the team won the verdict in the final trial of the statewide competition, which concluded Monday in Montgomery. Tyler-Dudley was also recognized as best plaintiff attorney. The team, which is supported through funding from the Ray Hartwell '65 Mock Trial Team Endowment, will represent Alabama at the prestigious 2017 National High School Mock Trial Championship in Hartford, Conn., next May. 
 
The No. 1 team, which claimed third in the nation at the 2015 and 2016 YMCA National Judicial Competitions, was one of four Springs teams to place in the top 20 at the state competition. "Congratulations to all our students, who worked hard and represented our school magnificently," says faculty adviser D'Anthony Allen.
 
"For the second year in a row, this Mock Trial team has earned the highest score among all 82 teams competing in the YMCA Alabama State Judicial Competition,” says volunteer coach Carole Mazer. “Their preparation, legal knowledge, and professionalism are unsurpassed among their peers, and they continue to be excellent ambassadors for Indian Springs School. In addition to working incredibly hard on their own preparation, each member of this team spent most of their meeting time in the weeks leading up to the competition helping the other four Indian Springs teams with their preparations. I could not be prouder of all these remarkable students."
 
Indian Springs School teams also included:
 
Team 951 (Top 10 Defense)
Captain: Daler Karassayev ‘17
Dewey Wilbanks ‘17
Deven Patel ‘20
Dylan Le ‘20
Bela Patel ‘18
Thomas Rooney ‘17
Ashton Dudley ‘19
 
Team 901 (Top 10 Plaintiff)
Captain: Henry Giattina ‘17
Peter Scalise ‘18
Bin Cho ‘18
Emma Storm ‘19
Kendall Owens ‘19
Christian Owens ‘17
Molly Webb ‘19
 
Team 952 (Top 20 Defense)
Captain: Alice Zhang ‘18
Cher Hu ‘18
Ethan Howell ‘21
Amy Li ‘18
Bennett Atkins ‘18
Abigail Mathis ‘18
Jennifer Feng* ‘18
 
Team 953 (Outstanding First-Year Participants)
Captain: Manuela Uzunova ‘18
Julia Goldberg ‘19
Tenneil Miao ‘19
Jordyn Hudson ‘20
William Marshall ‘21
Isaac Zhou ‘20
Jean-Paul Doucet ‘21
Kim-Thi Vu ‘18
 
Communications Manager/Media Team
Nadia Lane ‘19
 
To win the final round of the competition, which was held in front of the entire 800-student delegation, Springs’ No. 1 team argued for the plaintiff in a defamation case involving a high school basketball player whose teammate implied in online posts that the player abuses drugs.
 
“Our job was to show that the defendant actually did make these posts and our client was not using drugs,” says Tyler-Dudley.
 
“Civil law is much more complex than criminal law, especially with advocacy, because your job is to explain to jury members the many nuances of civil law,” says Klapow. Adds Tyler-Dudley, “We spent a lot of time objecting and arguing with other teams about Federal Rules of Evidence and how they apply to this case.”
 
Klapow, who captained the winning team, and Tyler-Dudley believe that “team chemistry and a love of competing” have contributed to the team’s success. Springs teams, which train several hours a week after school, also practice staying “calm, cool, and collected,” even when under fire in a courtroom setting, says Klapow. “There’s a definite art to trial advocacy that is under-appreciated. It’s sort of like a play meets debate meets a sports team.”
 
Faculty adviser D’Anthony Allen applauded Klapow and Tyler-Dudley for serving as mentors to newer and first-year Mock Trial members.
 
“The older students, not just the national team but all of the upperclassmen, have embraced that leadership role following Max and Davis’ standards,” says Allen. “They set the bar high, and as a result we have some outstanding freshman and first-year students who are learning how to prepare and compete.”
 
“We’re so happy with how everybody has performed,” says Tyler-Dudley. “It’s nice to see everybody’s hard work pay off for all the Indian Springs teams.”
 
For both Klapow and Tyler-Dudley,  the future of Indian Springs' distinctive student-run, extracurricular Mock Trial program, is in good hands. “Three years ago, mock trial at Indian Springs was a club,” says Klapow. “Now I feel it’s a program. The biggest accomplishment is that there are going to be some incredible things to come from this program in the years ahead.”
 
Back
190 Woodward Drive, Indian Springs, Alabama 35124
Phone: 205.988.3350
Indian Springs School, an independent school recognized nationally as a leader in boarding and day education for grades 8-12, serves a talented and diverse student body and offers admission to qualified students regardless of race, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Located in Indian Springs, Alabama, just south of Birmingham, the school does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, or athletic and other school-administered programs.

© 2023 Indian Springs School. All Rights Reserved.