The following states have submitted personal stories about their teams. If you are interested in interviewing a team, please contact Carol Manning, OBA Public Information Director, at (405) 416-7016 or (405) 202-5001.

Arizona
University High School, Tucson

There are eight seniors on the University High team, five of whom (Mary Anderson, Alex Ancharski, Andrew Brandon, Amanda d'Souza and Connor Mendenhall) have competed together on the same mock trial team for four years.

The team is both geographically diverse and well traveled. Ke Wu was born in Wuhan, China. Amanda d'Souza's parents were both raised in India, and Amanda has visited there several times (Amanda will be attending St. Andrew's College, in Edinburgh, Scotland next year). Mary Anderson is half-Moroccan and lived in Spain for a year. Andrew Brandon participated in an exchange program in Germany last summer, and Connor Mendenhall has travelled through East Asia, performing with the Tucson Boys' Chorus. (He can do rope tricks with a lariat, too!) Jolene Kokroko's middle name is Afua, "Friday" in her father's Ghanian dialect. She will be be spending this summer volunteering with Los Amigos building a water cistern in a village near Recife, Brazil.

These kids are varsity athletes – Andrew Brandon (football), Will Austin (volleyball), Jolene Kokroko (track); musicians – Amanda d'Souza (piano, violin, flute, percussion, bassoon), Will Austin (clarinet, piano, guitar), Connor Mendenhall (trumpet, tuba), Ke Wu (violin, cello, piano); dancers (Alex Ancharski and Ke) and politicians – Mary Anderson is student council co-president, Amanda d'Souza is treasurer and Connor Mendenhall serves on the school site council.

They also work and volunteer in their spare time – Ke teaches Chinese culture dance and volunteers at St. Joseph's Hospital, Connor is a lifeguard and water safety instructor, Alex teaches Sunday school and Mary works as a technician in an optometry office.

Both Connor and Ke have been awarded Flinn Foundation Scholarships, a prestigious four-year award given to only 20 Arizona high school seniors. Ke is also a Presidential Scholar finalist.

Louisiana
Jesuit High School, New Orleans

The students on Jesuit High School’s mock trial team lost their school on Aug. 29, 2005 in the wrath of Hurricane Katrina. Their head coach, Brett Wise, was then recalled to active duty shortly before the state championship tournament. That we fielded a team this year is amazing. That we won Jesuit’s first State Championship is a tribute to the spirit of New Orleans, and to the program that Brett Wise built.

“The damage to Jesuit High School was catastrophic. It is impossible to describe,” said Louisiana State Mock Trial Coordinator Bob Noel.

Pictures and video may be seen at www.jesuitnola.org. Just select “Hurricane Katrina Restoration Project” or read the articles online.

“It is easier to describe the feeling when we were together again in a second floor classroom. We were home. For the first time in a long time we could tell ourselves that things were getting back to normal. We were working on the state problem. Just like we did before Katrina. It felt like hope. It felt good. Maybe that was what made this year so different. We had a different perspective and definition of victory,” Noel said.

Maine
Hampden Academy, Hampden

Hampden Academy’s mock trial team has represented the state of Maine in four of the past five consecutive national competitions. This year is its fifth appearance of nationals in the past six years. The team’s attorney coaches, Jim McCarthy and Bill Devoe, have been with the team at each of those competitions and have coached the team for the past 10 years.

Massachusetts
Boston Latin School, Boston

Boston Latin School is the oldest public school in America with a continuous existence. It was founded April 23, 1635, by the Town of Boston, antedating Harvard College by more than a year. The curriculum of the school is centered in the humanities, its founders sharing with the ancient Greeks the belief that the only good things are the goods of the soul. Edmund Burke referred to America as exemplifying the “dissidence of dissent.” From the beginning, Boston Latin School has taught its scholars dissent with responsibility and has persistently encouraged such dissent.

Michigan
Kalamazoo Central High School, Kalamazoo

All team members qualify for the Kalamazoo Promise.

The school, Kalamazoo Central State Champion Team (now Team Michigan) has represented the state of Michigan more times (14) than any school has represented the state.

The team has won 14 state championships (thus have attended 14 national): 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996. The team won nationals in 1996.

Oklahoma
Atoka High School, Atoka

The Atoka team is going to be introduced on the Oklahoma House of Representatives Floor Thursday at 10 a.m. Rep. Paul Roan will give a brief history of the team and introduce them as the state champion.

Oregon
LaSalle High School, Milwaukie

Every member of this team is a veteran with either two or three years of experience. The team “plays” all the students who have come out for the team, no one is “cut.” The coaches work with the students to get them ready for competition and to perform well.

Pennsylvania
Greensburg Salem High School, Greensburg

One team member, Ron Garofalo, has faced a great deal of adversity in his young life. When Ron was 10 years old, his father passed away right before Christmas; Ron and his mother struggled on and Ron did very well in school. He proved to be very talented in performance art and foreign languages. In his freshman year of high school, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. For a year and a half until she died, Ron cared for her and assumed adult responsibilities for their household. He lost his mother in December of his sophomore year. He currently resides with his adult cousin and her young son in conditions that are less than ideal.

Two months after he lost his mother, Ron competed in mock trial playing the role of a police officer. His performance helped the team to win county and regional competitions, giving them a berth in the state competition. He has been with the team ever since and they have been a winning team ever since.

This is Ron's senior year; he will be attending American University in Washington, D.C. this fall.

“During the time I have worked with him I have never seen any sign of self-pity or even any bids for sympathy,” said Pennsylvania State Mock Trial Coordinator William Higgins Jr. “He is positive, productive, clean living and gregarious. No one would ever guess how much loss he has suffered. His bravery, strength and forward looking attitude deserve more praise than I could ever express.”

South Carolina
Berkley High School, Moncks Corner

Berkley High School has won the South Carolina State High School Mock Trial championship title for the past two years consecutively. The team has won the title seven times.

Jack Landis, family court judge for the 9th Judicial Circuit and mock trial coach for the Berkeley team for better than a decade, has had the privilege of coaching his son Peter when the team won the state title in 2005 and his daughter Jane when the team won the title in 2006.

South Korea
Hanyoung Foreign Language High School, Seoul

This is the team’s first National Mock Trial Championship. Additionally, this is the only team operating in their second language. This team will travel more than 6,600 miles to compete in the championship.