Amador Valley High School Wins Alameda County Mock Trial Competition
Friday, March 02, 2007

OAKLAND – Amador Valley High School clinched the Alameda County Mock Trial competition with its strong closing arguments, beating Granada High School and earning the chance to represent the county at the state competition.

Amador earned 426 points while Granada had 408 points. The lawyers who volunteered to score the teams had each school relatively close in many areas such as cross examinations, but it was the closing arguments that sealed the win for Amador.

"The victory by Amador Valley High School is a reflection of all the hard work and dedication that students, sponsoring teachers and attorney coaches put into preparing for this year's competition," said Alameda County Schools Superintendent Sheila Jordan. "Praise must also be reserved for our partners in the legal community who devoted their time to support this annual competition."

Alameda County Superior Court Presiding Judge George Hernandez, who presided over the finals on March 1, spoke of how – in 12 years on the bench – he has rarely seen attorneys as prepared as those arguing before him.

A reception for all teams will be held Tuesday, March 6, 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. at the Alameda County Office of Education, 313 W. Winton Ave. in Hayward.

Amador will represent Alameda County at the state competition that will be held March 23-25 in Oakland. The state competition will be hosted by the Alameda County Office of Education.

First place for Journalism went to Jacob Cohn of Piedmont High School. First place for sketch artist went to Hanna Nakamura of Oakland Technical High School.