For the second year in a row — and fifth time in six years — Creighton Prep won the Nebraska state high school mock trial competition and the opportunity to compete for the national championship in May.

The Creighton Prep students were “ecstatic” when the final verdict was announced, said Mark Laughlin, one of two attorney coaches from Fraser Stryker who spent months preparing their team for the competition. Patrick Cooper is the other coach.

“The kids write their directs, they write their crosses, they write openings, they write closings,” Laughlin said. “We help them and then we practice to get better and get ready for the competition.”

The state competition is organized by the Nebraska State Bar Foundation and is named for Judge Lyle Strom, who “was a great promoter of the law and a great mentor,” District Court Magistrate Judge Susan Bazis said in an interview with The Daily Record.

“He loved helping new lawyers,” said Bazis, who is the chair of the Mock Trial Committee.

The state mock trial competition was named after Strom in 2014 to honor the judge’s longtime association with the competition.

Mock trial teams across Nebraska begin preparation when the case documents are sent out by the Mock Trial Case Committee, usually in late August.

The first round of regional competition begins in October, with 12 teams moving on to the state competition, which is usually held in early December, but was postponed this year due to the ongoing pandemic.

Creighton Prep faced rival Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart. Together, the two schools have won the state competition for eight straight years.

“Duchesne is our biggest rival,” Creighton Prep senior Jack McNally said in an email. “They admitted as much when we were exchanging congratulations after the state trial, and so it felt very rewarding to know that all of the work we put in over the five or so months of the competition season ultimately paid off with a state title. Duchesne was definitely the strongest team we played against the entire year.”

Creighton Prep defeated Duchesne in a narrow ruling. Bazis was impressed by both teams’ preparation and presentation during the trial.

“You have two very good, competent teams that really put each other to the test,” Bazis said. “What’s fascinating to me is, you have students who have not gone to law school, and one side will make an objection, the other side responds, and then the other side wants to respond to that, and so they’re going back and forth on the spot, making objections, and depending on the ruling I make, they have to adjust what they’re doing.”

Bazis said they did “a fantastic job this year.”

“They really argued (the case) to the level of quality that I would hope attorneys who appear in front of me actually do,” Bazis said. “It’s pretty remarkable for students who never went to law school.”

Bazis said law school doesn’t even teach you how to do a trial.

“It gives you the basics, but you really need to be in a trial, and learn from people who do trials to do it effectively,” Bazis said. “Somebody who just gets out of law school can’t walk in and do a trial and do it flawlessly without any mistakes, which is really what these kids are doing.”

McNally said he and his teammates were nervous while the judges deliberated, while Laughlin described it as “nerve-wracking.”

The Creighton Prep team gets a few months of rest before the case from the National High School Mock Trial Championship is released in April, with the tournament taking place over Mother’s Day weekend.

For the state tournament, McNally said that preparation was key to Creighton Prep’s success.

“We had practices three times a week after school and a practice on Sundays at (Fraser Stryker),” McNally said. “This can be a short 10-minute meeting or sometimes — especially as an attorney working on one’s cross examination — it can be an hour and a half of crossing an experienced attorney over legal issues with no breaks. It can be very grueling at times, but that’s what it takes to be a competitive team and it clearly paid off.”

McNally’s teammate and fellow senior Kevin Lee praised the team’s coaches for making sure they were so well prepared.

“They put in so much work for all the students,” Lee said in an interview. “Without the coaches, I don’t think we would have even won regionals.”

The national tournament was scheduled to take place in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but tournament officials decided it would be more prudent to switch to a remote format due to the ongoing pandemic.

“The NHSMTC Board cannot assure that the competition could be held in-person safely in May, consistent with our students’ and schools’ needs,” according to a statement from the organization. “This was not the outcome anyone desired, but this choice was necessary to protect our community.”

The 2021 tournament was also held remotely. The National High School Mock Trial Championship Board hopes to return to in person competition next year in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Both McNally and Lee were sophomores the last time the state tournament was held in person at the Douglas County Courthouse.

They agree that while competing via Zoom video conferencing is still fun, it doesn’t quite replicate the feeling of being in a real courtroom with your fellow competitors.

“I enjoyed the in-person experience a lot more,” Lee said. “It felt more real, was a lot more intimidating, and I felt like I was actually participating in a real trial.”

McNally noted the physicality of being in person is lost when competing remotely.

“It was definitely a lot more engaging to do competitions in person,” McNally said. “Being able to walk around the well of the courtroom, being able to turn to and address opposing counsel, the judge, and the scoring judges in the jury box.”

Zoom trials are not without their benefits, however, McNally said

“We don’t have to keep up the guise of courtroom professionalism while sifting through case files or scripts to find things relevant to the trial, which takes the pressure off when we’re not competing as opposed to sitting at counsel table,” McNally said. “It takes the pressure off us to maintain decorum for the whole trial and makes it a more relaxing experience. Additionally, we can talk about parts of our performance immediately after we go and talk about what worked and didn’t work, or laugh about particularly memorable moments.”

While being unable to travel to Michigan for the national tournament is understandable, it is also “a real bummer,” Laughlin said.

“The reward for winning the state championship is you get to get on a plane and travel with your buddies and members of the team, and stay in hotels, and a lot of our kids meet kids from other states, all of whom are state champions,” Laughlin said.

“Throughout the season, we oftentimes talked about how a big motivation for competing over Zoom through state was to finally have the chance to compete in person again after two years of online competitions,” McNally said. “As a senior it’s unfortunate that I won’t be able to return to normal trials before I graduate and leave the program. It would’ve been fun to travel over the summer to Michigan, but I know that there’s still lots to look forward to with the upcoming nationals season.”