By Elizabeth Bobr

Mock trial, a club where students are able to be attorneys and defendants while imitating a criminal or civil trial, kicked off its second season with a meeting on Tuesday, September 27.  After an inaugural season that ended with 8th place at regionals, the group has big plans for this year.

Students get together every Tuesday with coaches Rob Osterman, math teacher, and Marla McCowan, attorney and WLC parent, to practice for the competition season where they go head to head in a court case against other schools in front of real judges.

This club has attracted many students who see themselves in a courtroom in the future. “It feels like I am in Criminal Minds,” said sophomore Greta Shaw. “I started going to the mock trial meetings because I am interested in law and my friends were doing it, so I thought that it would be a great afterschool activity,” said sophomore Sharon Thomas.

The club began last year with now sophomore Kyle Biel.  “I have always wanted to be a lawyer,” said Biel. “One day I accidentally found a mock trial video on Youtube and wanted to bring it to this high school.” Biel found Osterman willing to sponsor and coach the club and McCowan, a criminal attorney, agreed work with the team as well.

In the 2015-2016 season the team went to regionals competing their case against schools from around the country. The WLC mock trial team happily accepted 8th place since it was only their first year of having this club.

Meetings are held every Tuesday right after school in room C102. The members are currently talking about cases in the news and running exercises until they get the case they will compete with in November.