"I really hope you advance, well, I really hope our boys advance too. In a perfect world, we'd both advance." (said the Hillcrest mom to the Skyline coach prior to announcing the semi-finalists at the 30th annual Texas Mock Trial Championship).18 kids in DISD helped make today, in Dallas, a perfect world. From almost 170 original contesting teams (ranging from Decatur to El Paso to Houston), only four, or about 2% would make it to the semi-finals, and two of those four were Hillcrest High School and Skyline High School, both of DISD.
During regionals, a few weeks back, Hillcrest and Skyline had dueled twice, each claiming a victory. It was an epic showdown, not North vs. South, but boys vs. girls on the last match - the Skyline attorney and witness seats were filled by beautiful females. Our boys didn't look too shabby either, but their handsome good looks couldn't sway the ladies from their goal of winning.
DISD is a region unto itself for mock trial competition, and because they have so many schools participating they are allowed two entries into the state tournament. At states, held in Dallas over two days, 24 of the original regional combatants make it to this level. Other local teams represented were Decatur HS (last years state champs), Ursuline (Dallas), Richardson HS, Creekview HS (Carrollton), Midway HS (Waco), and Paris HS.
Well, Hillcrest faced Americas HS (El Paso) during the semi-final round, and Skyline faced Highlands HS (Highlands), while it was a close fight Hillcrest did not make it to the finals. Impressively, Americas came this far with a first year attorney/coach.
As to Skyline, well I'll have to post an update - I'm headed off to feed the Boy a steak after a tough loss. His dad knows how to make it just right. But this post wasn't about the ultimate winner, it was just a Dallas story about kids in DISD that excelled - and something you probably wouldn't hear about otherwise.
After two days (15 hours) of sitting on hard court benches, would someone please serve me a cushion?
UPDATE: Skyline advances to Finals, which are held tonight. More to follow, but I have chills. Go Skyline, You Rock!
UPDATED UPDATE: Still no news on the winner, and I've checked multiple sources, aargh! But photos of the participants can be seen here (Thanks Bruce!)
SKYLINE WINS! Go get them in Atlanta at Nationals!
5 comments:
If you seek Amy, look (a) anywhere that there are old cookbooks, (b) at Hillcrest High School baseball games where son Erik (a.k.a. Sevy Jr.) is the star 3rd baseman, or (c) at the County or U.S. courthouses downtown, were Erik is a key player on the Mock Trial “dream team” assembled at Hillcrest. They came seemingly out of nowhere to advance to the top 4 in Texas, in round after nail-biting round at the State finals. That cavernous federal court room was the biggest I’ve ever seen. State District judge, the Honorable Martin Hoffman presiding.
Ahem, lead attorney (lead guitarist/vocalist for Subterranean Aviators, http://subterraneanaviators.com/and 2009 Mr. HHS), Jeff W. did pretty dang well. Won best litigator in the DISD region.
He'll make an incredible musician, and able to negotiate his own contracts.
Skyline team members in the case of The State of Texoma v. Bo Tyde: Lauren Burgess, Morgan Burgess, Countess Dudley, Marissa Escamilla, Allyson LaFrance, Obed Manuel, Salvador Ortega, Cristian Perez, Diane Rivas, Courtney Sanders, Coach Joe Wicker and Coach Dr. Martha Williams.
Hillcrest team members: Jeremy Dickie, Steven Haspel, Michael Hinojosa, Taylor Hinojosa, Phillip Sartain, Erik Severson, Ross Shwarts, Jeff Wilke Coach/teacher Dr. Haiya Naftali, and Attorney advisor/alumni mom Kate Hopkins.
Yikes! And how could I forget the "Dr. McGonagal/Fire Marshall Kelsey Boyce", HHS's Tommy Lewis. Sorry TL!
Amy thanks for the info! As a DISD "employee", we do miss alot of the GOOD things going on in the district. I can't imagine why the DMN wouldn't have mentioned Skyline in a positive light...or at least for something that didn't concern athletics?!
mrs. mary, I'm a big fan of your blog. Let me say that the pre-event publicity in TDMN consisted of a blog post in the crime blog - not the education blog.
And even after the event, the sole publicity they gave the event was a link to my post on their education blog. At that point in time the winner was still unknown - do you think they bothered to call the Dallas Bar Assocation to investigate? No. I had to wait for second hand information from my 17 year old.
Let me say that I am encourage about the future of Dallas, seeing all these young future lawyers at regionals and states. I only hope they come back to "cook" in Dallas.
For a big city, it's really a small town. I love Dallas.
Post a Comment