Blog Series: Oratory Prep Mock Trial Team On the Road for National Competition

May 2, 2012, Albuquerque, New Mexico—Sixteen members of the School’s Mock Trial NJ State Championship Team landed in Albuquerque this afternoon to participate in the annual National Mock Trial Championship sponsored by the State Bar of New Mexico and the Center for Civic Values. In March, the Roman Catholic all-boys school won the  title that enabled them to compete at Nationals.
     The bus from Oratory Prep School in Summit left at 5:30 a.m. to take the participants, their coach Bill Martin, assistant Chris Darcy ’09 and chaperone Matt Klarmann to Newark airport for the 8 a.m. flight. Parents Donna Mooney, Maria Briggs, Alissa Batista (and her aunt Elsa Puebla),  Mike Marino and Dirk and Leigh Anne Leas as well as Oratory Prep’s PR Coordinator Susan Dougherty were among the fans who boarded the same plane.
     After changing planes in Chicago, the OP team found themselves sitting among some of their competition — the Connecticut State Champions who they scrimmaged against tonight. When they landed in New Mexico and collected their luggage, they were shuttled to the Hyatt Hotel.
      At 4 p.m. Albuquerque time (2 hour time difference from NJ), the boys and chaperones met to take a bus to Old Town, the focal point of Albuquerque’s community life since 1706. A quaint plaza opens onto 30 stores and restaurants where the teens browsed and then met for an authentic Mexican dinner at Casa De Fiesta. Dean of Academics Owen McGowen, who had taken a later flight, joined them at the restaurant.
      While an authentically dressed mariachi band played in the plaza, the boys gathered in front of the centerpiece church—named San Felipe De Neri, the Spanish name for St. Philip Neri, the school’s patron saint!
     Viewing that coincidence as a good omen, the boys headed back to their scrimmage. Both teams had agreed ahead of time that they would dress casually, as the scrimmage did not count toward the competition, but was a warm-up for each team.
      Tomorrow proves to be another long day for the boys with meetings in the afternoon and another scrimmage then, followed by the official team dinner.
      In Mock Trial, teens play the roles of the attorneys, the witnesses and the defendant and are required to be able to present both sides of the case at different times. For the Oratory team, attorneys are Scott Turtur, Matt Munro and Conor Mooney. The witnesses for the prosecution are Liam Leas (co-captain for the team), Tom Hughes and Ethan Heller. Witnesses for the defense are Tom Hughes, Loren Reinoso (co-captain for the team) and Daniel Pallone.
        Other members of the team who are in Albuquerque are: Alexander Lake, Brian Durkin, Michael Marino, Conor Mooney, Ethan Heller, Daniel Pallone, David Batista, Andrew Coder, Emanuel Okusanya, Connor Briggs and Joseph Bizub. Team member Jack McKenna did not attend.
       Photos and information will be updated nightly on summitpatch.com for Oratory’s journey to the National Championship.