{"id":46569,"date":"2022-11-11T17:13:44","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T22:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=46569"},"modified":"2023-03-20T20:48:32","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T00:48:32","slug":"utc-mock-trial-team-has-a-grand-ole-time-in-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2022\/11\/utc-mock-trial-team-has-a-grand-ole-time-in-nashville\/","title":{"rendered":"UTC Mock Trial team has a grand ole time in Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The Grand Ole Tournament-winning UTC Mock Trial blue team. Top row, from left: Taylor Johnson, McKenna Smythe, Giuliano Duva, Stephen Scott. Bottom row: Stacy Cunningham, Emma Denham, Sophia Kennan, Nicole Knight-Fallon. Photo courtesy of Mike Giglio.<\/p><\/div>\n

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore Justin LaPorta likes explaining to people the fun he has with the \u201cDavid vs. Goliath\u201d aspect of the UTC Mock Trial team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember last year we were in a tournament against teams from Harvard, Duke, Northwestern, Brown and UCLA,\u201d said LaPorta, a political science and public service major and a Brock Scholar in the Honors College. \u201cWhen you say that little UT Chattanooga is able to take ballots from UCLA, people are like, \u2018Whoa, what do you do?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really reassuring to me that my education here is holding its own against some of those schools. Because when you’re able to compete just as well as they are, it kind of gives you that sense of, \u2018Wow, I know what I’m doing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On Nov. 5-6, the UTC Mock Trial<\/strong><\/a> undergraduate student organization took home top honors in the Grand Ole Tournament hosted by Vanderbilt University at the Davidson County Courthouse in Nashville.<\/p>\n

UTC entered two teams in the competition. The blue team won the invitational with an overall mark of 6-1-1. Other institutions competing included Vanderbilt University, UT Knoxville, Brown University, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, the University of Minnesota, the University of South Carolina, the University of Mississippi, the University of Maryland, the University of Alabama, Michigan State University, Rhodes College, Elon University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Washington and Lee University in Virginia.<\/p>\n

The gold team, with seven of its nine members participating in mock trials for the first time this fall, posted a respectable 3-5-0 mark.<\/p>\n

While mock trials are built around court cases, they are designed for students interested in public speaking, debate, acting, law school or academic competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of kids who have no interest in being lawyers. They just either like arguing or acting or some other aspect that comes out in mock trial,\u201d said Mike Giglio, an attorney and Political Science and Public Service adjunct faculty member who has coached the team since its inception in 2008.<\/p>\n

According to the American Mock Trial Association<\/strong><\/a>, more than 300 universities across the country have mock trial programs. Over the last seven seasons, UTC Mock Trial has earned three bids to the national championship and placed in the top 3 in 13 tournaments.<\/p>\n

Mock trials are held in the fall as tournaments, building toward a spring national championship run that starts at the regional level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best analogy I\u2019ve come up with for the regionals is that they\u2019re like the Final Four in basketball,\u201d Giglio said. \u201cThe regionals are the opening round where everybody goes. Then you get to the Sweet 16, and if you make it through the Sweet 16 weekend, you go to nationals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AMTA has trial teams present a different case each year. For 2022-2023, it is a civil case titled \u201cFelder v. Koller Campbell Air, LLC,\u201d a fictional airplane crash in which the spouse of a deceased passenger sues the company that owned the plane.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a fairly rigorous academic thing because they really have to learn a lot about the rules of evidence and courtroom procedure,\u201d Giglio said, \u201cbut these kids are always amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, every tournament, many of the judges\u2014who are local lawyers or local judges or past mock trial participants\u2014consistently tell all the kids that there are a lot of lawyers in their courtrooms who are not as good as these kids are.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of this fall\u2019s buildup toward the spring season, UTC previously received the Spirit of AMTA Award at last month\u2019s Classic City Invitational hosted by the University of Georgia. Also known as the SPAMTA Award, the award goes to the team that best exemplifies the ideals of honesty, civility and fair play.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we get pretty hot and heavy during the competition, Mock Trial is not meant to be mean-spirited; it\u2019s to try to win, but be good sports,\u201d Giglio said. \u201cAs the leader of the group, I\u2019m very proud of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo pun intended, but our kids kind of mocked it. Our kids saw it as a congeniality award; they wanted to win the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next time out, his UTC students did just that.<\/p>\n

\"\"The UTC group saw three members win individual honors while finishing atop the Grand Ole Tournament standings. Junior Stacy Cunningham, a history and philosophy of law, ethics and justice major, won an Outstanding Attorney award. Political science majors Emma Denham and LaPorta won Outstanding Witnesses awards.<\/p>\n

In her third year with the UTC Mock Trial team, Cunningham was honored for her work in closing arguments. It was the first time she had received an individual award at an AMTA tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the trial, you basically have between eight to nine minutes to sell your case,\u201d explained Cunningham, a native of Nashville. \u201cMaybe you have the evidence you need, maybe you don\u2019t, but you have to get up and give your speech. It\u2019s just a debate battle between yourself and the opposing closer and it\u2019s really exciting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun because you\u2019re just in the moment; whatever comes out, comes out. A lot of times, it\u2019s completely on the fly and it\u2019s a rhetorical game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham referred to the mock trials as 4D chess because there are many dimensions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the logical reasoning aspect that comes in during objections. \u2018Do you understand the law? Can you use the law to your advantage?\u2019 And there\u2019s the rhetorical aspect of, \u2018Can you make your case look good? How do you do it?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what makes it so fun. I like to say it\u2019s my sport; I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denham, a junior from Chattanooga, is in her first year at UTC. The Grand Ole Tournament was just her second mock trial experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels very rewarding to win an award,\u201d she said, \u201cbut even more so to win one as a team. It really goes to show that all of our practices and hard work pays off. I am really grateful to have such an outstanding team.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaPorta, who hails from Birmingham, Alabama, said he chose UTC because of its Mock Trial program.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friend group in high school was people in mock trial who wanted to pursue the legal field,\u201d he said. \u201cMy brother (Jordan) did mock trial throughout his high school career and at Alabama. He\u2019s now a lawyer, and law school is my plan at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family\u2019s middle class and money was a huge thing. When I was first looking at UT Chattanooga and the Honors College Scholarship, I remember looking up the (UTC Mock Trial) Instagram and the website and I\u2019m like, \u2018Wow, they have a really solid program.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

LaPorta said he won individual awards for his high school mock trial participation, but being selected for his work as an expert witness at the Vanderbilt tournament was his first collegiate honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an expert witness, what you do is you try to convince the people who are scoring what you\u2019re doing in the simplest terms,\u201d he said of his role-playing, acting and improvisational skills. \u201cI was an accident reconstructionist who broke down the plane crash, and I used scientific evidence to prove why this helps our case.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best feelings is when you\u2019re getting cross-examined by another team and they start getting riled up. They start getting angry because you\u2019re not giving them the answers they want,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cYou\u2019re doing exactly what you\u2019re supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

UTC Mock Trial Team<\/strong><\/h4>\n