(Note: Attorney Ron Bamieh is a prominent lawyer in Ventura County, California who has successfully tried many high-profile criminal cases. Mr. Bamieh’s law firm Bamieh & Erickson PLC handles personal injury and criminal cases. Here, Mr. Bamieh writes about his experience in coaching La Reina School’s Mock Trial Team and about the school’s formula for consistently winning competitions including local, state and world mock trial events.)
BY RON BAMIEH
For those who are unaware, mock trial is academic activity where high school students play the roles of attorneys and witnesses and put on a criminal trial.
The trial is the same for all teams in a given competition, with teams having to play both prosecution and defense.Recently my daughter graduated La Reina High School, and her graduation ended my tenure as the coach of La Reina High School:Mock Trial Team.
Three or four students play the roles of witnesses, and two or three students play the roles of the lawyers in a typical mock trial round. The students playing the roles of the lawyers and witnesses learn the basics:
- The evidence code
- How to examine witnesses
- Complicated legal principals.
- Student lawyers are evaluated by how they will apply their knowledge and by the quality of their presentation.
- Students playing witness roles are evaluated by how they perform the role, and respond to questions on direct and cross examination.
Winners are determined by the quality and realism of their presentation of the case. In Ventura County in a given year there are 28 to 32 mock trial teams competing for a county title. All county winners throughout the state compete for the state championship:
- There are over 500 mock trial teams in California and 30 to 36 counties send their champions to compete for the State Title.
- The California State Champion competes at the National Mock Trial Championships where in a given year 42 to 44 State and some International champions compete for the National Championship.
Hundreds of Mock Trial Teams I am told there are 3000 mock trial teams in the United States.
There are even more than 400 mock trial teams in other countries from England to Australia who compete in Mock Trial. There is even a High School Mock Trial World Championship tournament in New York where the best high school Mock Trial teams in United States compete with International teams from around the world for one of Mock Trial’s highest honors.
La Reina Mock Trial was established in 1990 and over the course of it’s 23 year history, the team has captured:
- 18 Ventura County Championship titles
- 4 State Championships (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013)
- 2 World Championship titles (2011, 2012) National Finalist in 2013
During the four years I coached at La Reina High School our teams won 9 of 14 mock trial championships we were eligible to win.
This includes four consecutive county championships: We became the only high school in the 35 year history of California mock trial to win 3 consecutive State Championships (2011,12, and 13) (we are one of the only teams to win two consecutive titles), also the only team ever to be 4 consecutive State Mock Trial finals.
The Formula for Success
We defeated 19 consecutive county champions in California, and 16 current state champions (at the time we faced them), and two national champions.
I have been asked how did a small all girls Catholic School in Thousand Oaks with only 400 students, who competed with only 12 to 14 girls become one of the most successful high teams in the Country. People want to know our secret to success, asking the basic question how did you guys do it? I don’t have a complicated formula to share, but I have a pretty good idea how we were able achieve what we accomplished.
Our formula started with talent. While we usually competed with 12 to 14 girls, those girls were extremely bright and talented and we knew going into any competition that talent wise we were equal or better than any opponent.
In addition to being talented our kids were dedicated and competitive, they hated to lose and loved winning and they were not embarrassed about it and never apologized for it.
That talent was also coached by a staff that actually liked each other, and who were just as competitive as the students. All the coaches I worked with were competitors, and not one of us was embarrassed to say our goal was win championships.
Our coaching staff was a cohesive, and I was lucky enough to coach all four years with some incredible women, headed by our faculty advisor Liz Harlacher and our other main attorney coach Jean Wentz.
Yes we argued occasionally, but ultimately every decision was made by just answering the simple question what was best for the team. We had others over the years joined our staff and contribute, including some magnificent La Reina Alumni who competed in college mock trial and came back to their alma mater to work with the team.
All of the coaches who joined us were dedicated and talented professionals who were not afraid to openly share the same goal. I’m guessing there are some reading this that would be offended that the goal we set for our team of young women was to win, and not just one tournament but every tournament.
I could have written that our goals were to give the girls an enriched learning experience, and to allow girls to have the opportunity to compete in an academic activity.
I could say we wanted the girls to learn how to be a good teammates, to learn and display good sportsmanship, and learn about the law and justice system and to learn to respect it.
Of course I could have emphasized that most importantly we wanted the girls to become independent strong young women, who would be leaders as they go off into the future. Interesting thing is that when you say winning is your goal all of the rest has to be accomplished in order to achieve it.
There is no shame is saying what you want and then going out and working hard to get it. That is exactly what we did, and along the way you end up with a hell of a finished product. Many schools have great talent and good coaching, I know because we faced and beat many of those teams.
The difference at La Reina and why few if any of those teams could have achieved what La Reina Mock Trial has over the last four years was our belief. Our advantage at La Reina, what I know made the difference, was our strong belief that if we competed to our potential we would be victorious.
This is a difficult belief to foster in mock trial.
The rounds are judged by lawyers in the community where the competition is being held, and not only does every community value the various skills of mock trial differently, every lawyer also has an opinion on what they like and don’t like.
It’s a subjective competition and all it takes is one weird scoring panel to end any team’s hopes of a championship. Yet we walked into courtrooms from Ventura, to Riverside, to Sacramento, to Indianapolis and New York and just about every time we walked out the victors.
The reason for that in my opinion is that when we walked in we fully expected, completely believed that we were the best team. That belief was seen by scorers and many times by the other team, and it was one of the most powerful weapons we had.
Many teams say they believe they can win, but most are just saying it. In order to obtain such a belief, for it to actually exist, you need kids who are confident, who achieve something, and you must not be embarrassed or shy about recognizing it. Most importantly you must eliminate fear of losing.
In 2011 , The First State Championship
Before the first night of the tournament the school had arranged to have a meal catered for the girls in a private conference room. Our plan was to eat the meal and then practice for two hours and call it a night. Well as the girls enjoyed the food and then most of all the desert, they were giddy and messing around and our practice time began to evaporate.
I stood up and raised my voice (as I am prone to do to either inspire or persuade). In my raised voice I asked all of them why they were here? Why I yelled did you come to this tournament?
I finished with saying what would eventually become one of our sayings, “I sure as hell didn’t come to get a F-ing participation ribbon.”
(Those who witnessed this inspirational speech claim I may not have used abbreviated version of the adjective above; I assure all who read this in the La Reina Administration when this saying was later repeated in the years that followed by the young women of our team they always dropped the adjective.).
I then pointed out the incredible opportunity that lay before them and that we were not going to waste it. Those girls didn’t take much persuading and work got done and before every round we reminded each other that we were not there to just participate, we were there to win and we all believed at our best we could.
The next fall of that same year we were invited to attend the Empire World Championships in New York. The previous spring we had graduated 7 seniors off our state championship team, and we were bringing girls to New York to compete for the World championship that were relatively inexperienced.
Challenging a National Mock Trial Debate Powerhouse
We knew that the top team in the Country, the defending World Champs and defending State Champs from Georgia would be the prohibitive favorite in the tournament. Our kids knew their kids by name because they had watched videos of their final performances and scrimmaged against them at Nationals.
We joked that the Georgia team were mock celebrities.
The World Championship had a rule for the first round pairings that I read before the tournament started. The rule read that each team in order of seeding. (They seed all teams from 1 to 32 based on the previous year’s performance) would be announced at the beginning of opening ceremonies and if they so choose they could challenge any team in the tournament to the first round match.
The World Tournament is basically a single elimination type tournament, it’s almost impossible to win it if you lose a round.
After I read this rule I knew exactly what we were going to do, given the opportunity we were going to challenge the defending World Champs to a first round match. When we got to New York for the tournament I made sure to tell every coach of every team exactly what we were going to do.
All of them thought I was joking. I was told that yes the rule was there and valid, but no team in the history of the tournament had ever invoked the rule and challenged a team in the first round.
Apparently the culture was that as the teams were announced and asked if they were going to challenge they would pass at the opportunity. Other coaches warned me that we would be out of the tournament in the first round. I responded by expressing my belief that I coached the best team in the country and we were there to prove it.
No matter how often I repeated exactly what we were going to do to my coaching colleagues not one would believe me, apparently they all thought I was insane.
My Fellow La Reina Coaches Had Doubts.
They had concerns, it was our first appearance in the tournament, they were hesitant to rock the boat, we had a young team and it could be too much pressure, and I will even say some had a little fear.
It was not difficult to convince them, all I had to do was ask them one simple question, “Do you believe we can win this thing?” When they answered yes, then I said “if you truly believe that if we want our kids to truly believe that, lets act like it.”
With that all coaches were on board, and the final step was to tell the girls. We decided not tell any of the girls but for our team captain.
We told her when they announced team California La Reina High School, she was to stand on her chair, turn towards Georgia, point at them and say: “We challenge Georgia.”
Our captain that year was Hannah Young and she was the type of kid who was great in a courtroom fight and would have been just as great if the fight was in an ally. She was on board as soon as I told her. I will admit besides fostering unwavering belief I did have strategic reason for the challenge.
I knew we would have to beat Georgia to win the tournament. If we faced them later in the tournament they would have the psychological advantage over my team, they had the experience and at that point a better resume, and we would have just been another team in their way and they would have had no fear.
However nobody believed we would actually challenge them that first round, they were completely unprepared for that, and our girls were excited and with their belief we had a distinct advantage that first round.
I knew Georgia would think we believed we were better if we were willing to challenge them in the first round. No team wants to face a team that has no fear and actually believes they are better.
So with five hundred kids from 40 of the best high school mock trial teams in the world all packed in a conference room filled with excitement, anticipation and tension we watched as Georgia passed on their chance to challenge any team.
We were the second seed in the bracket and called next, and with that Hannah Young stood on her chair and challenged a team that 39 teams thought was the best team in the World.
People gasped and we got reactions from you idiots to what balls, but in the end every team in that conference room and soon throughout the country knew there was one team that truly believed they were the best in the World.
As Hannah yelled our challenge, our girls screamed and jumped up with excitement, they were ready for this opportunity and believed immediately they were about to back up their coaches belief – and three hours later they had done just that and soon much more.
Our belief was also reflected in a cheer we did before every round starting our second year in county competition before the final round.
That year we had lost a preliminary round to a local high school, it was actually a meaningless round because both teams knew before the round that they were assured a spot in the final four of the tournament, but it was a loss nonetheless and we didn’t like losing any round. We faced the same team that beat us in the preliminary round in the final round for the County Championship that year.
The memories of that rare defeat were still on the minds of our girls. As we circled up to mentally prepare minutes before the final round started I pointed out that we lost that earlier round because we didn’t play to our potential, and made mistakes and we were not focused and took winning for granted.
I told them if they truly believed that we were the best than it didn’t matter who we faced, our opponent was not important because they were just Next. They are just the Next team we were going to beat. They were just the Next team that thought they could win but would soon realize that such thoughts were foolish.
They were just the Next Team in our way to another championship. I finished with, “Now say it with me, we are La Reina High School, We are the defending County Champs, the defending State Champions, we are the World Champions, and who are they (pointing to the other team), who are they, they are just – (all girls screamed) Next!!”
The “Next” Cheer
Before every round from that date on we did the Next cheer. Some schools misinterpreted that cheer as a cheer of disrespect that we were putting them down.
Those people just didn’t get it, the Next cheer was never a cheer about the other team it was a cheer about our team, and that we always believed we controlled the outcome of every round, that we believed we were so good that our performance always decided the outcome and our opponent had no control over how we would perform.
I had four great years coaching at La Reina and this year my tenure ended when we were defeated in the State Finals.
When we lost many of the teams cheered wildly for the victors, not to cheer a team’s victory, but celebrate our team’s defeat.
Our success was known to all, and many were frustrated and maybe a little envious at our success and they celebrated our defeat in a way that upset some of our kids.
After the tears had dried, and on our ride home I pointed out that those celebrating our defeat just paid our team the ultimate respect. They were shocked somebody actually beat us, and it was proof not only did we truly believe we were the best but all of our competitors thought the same.
As I look back and realize all we accomplished in four years I will always be grateful for the time I spent coaching those amazing young women. These past four years reminded me that talent, dedication and belief is an excellent recipe to achieve something great.