For the first time in program history, UGA Mock Trial took home the national championship first-place trophy in the American Mock Trial Association competition.
UGA Mock Trial, a completely student-run and funded organization, has 50 members who make up A, B and C teams, as well as a D team that does not perform at competitions. The A team — senior and co-captain Danielle Zeitlin, junior and co-captain Etinosa Ogbomo, senior Aiden Duffy, senior Ryan Varma, junior Alex Dean and sophomore Ruby Kelly — took home the trophy this year.
Zeitlin, president of the program, has been on the team all four years of college. After years of falling just short, the team secured a national title this year — an outcome Zeitlin said felt attainable after four consecutive years of placing at nationals.
“It was always something that we hoped would happen, but it is just [an] incredibly competitive process,” Zeitlin said. “There’s about 800 teams that start the season, and you go through multiple rounds of competition up until you get to nationals. For nationals, there’s an entirely new case that you have three weeks to prepare.”
Junior Alex Dean said there was a bit of uncertainty going into the season because they lost key team members that helped them take third place last year, and both co-captains were new to the role. But they remained confident.
“We kind of had a feeling that compared to everyone else in the field, we were still pretty strong,” Dean said. “We don’t really know where we stand, but we feel like, compared to everybody else, we’re doing pretty well.”
Senior Ryan Varma hopes this win will show that UGA Mock Trial can continue to push what is expected of mock trial teams throughout the nation.
“I really just hope now that we’ve proven ourselves on the biggest stage of the activity, that we continue to believe in ourselves and really trust that we are a phenomenal, smart group of people that can keep pushing the bounds of what it means to do mock trial in the U.S. or in the [American Mock Trial Association] community,” Varma said.
The team faced several challenges throughout the year, including financial ones. Being an entirely student-funded and run team, they did not only worry about the work they produced, but about logistics as well, like booking hotels, registration fees and travel costs.
But they didn’t let these hurdles stop them.
“All of our success is essentially the culmination of decades of passed-down knowledge and experience from previous competitors,” Senior Aiden Duffy said. “Being a really successful program is not always based on how much money you have or how many coaches you have behind your back, but really just the strength of your school’s tradition and your dedication to passing on the same collective knowledge that you learned to younger generations.”
Varma, another senior, has been on the team all four years and said he’s seen a “consistent culture of growth” within the program, evidenced by the team’s consecutive appearances at nationals over the past couple of years.
“My freshman year was the first time that we had made it consecutively, I believe, through nationals, and then since then, we’ve been making it to nationals consistently for the four years I’ve been in the program,” Varma said. “It’s been really fun to be a part of, and it’s really just a product of being able to learn from all the people who [came] before us, and passing down that knowledge too to the people who come after.”
Kelly has been on the team for two years, and this was her first year competing on the A team. Kelly said that the experience has been “surreal” for the whole team. She hopes to continue the winning streak, as well as build community.
“I’d love to see us take home two more [national championships], but in lieu of that, I think just continuing to build the program and the talent we have,” Kelly said. “As much as it is about winning, it’s also about building community, and I’d love to see that continue to grow.”
Zeitlin and Varma said the program has been a worthwhile and meaningful experience for them, and the win was a perfect way to cap off a career at UGA Mock Trial.
“Sometimes I still can’t believe that we did it,” Varma said. “Being able to compete with some of my closest friends and make history for UGA Mock Trial together has been unreal.”
