On Feb. 28, 2026, months of hard work from Grant High School’s mock trial teams culminated in their regional Mock Trial competition. Grant had three competing teams: Grant Grey, Grant Blue and Grant Black. They placed first, second and fourth respectively. This is the first time Grant Black has ever placed in the top five at regionals.
Preparing for a competition like this is a long process; Grant Grey member Aden Kassar describes the extracurricular as a whole to be based around working toward competitions. “It’s all preparation. Like, that’s all we do,” he says. The teams review about 100 pages of material for several months. “By the time we go into trial, everyone is almost sick of their content because of how many times they’ve gone over it,” writes Grant Blue Co-captain Annalise Buckley. The hours put in paid off this year in a big way. “Our individual teams … know each other’s content really well, and we know how we work together as a team,” says Hazel Sims, former captain and current member of Grant Blue.
In addition to having new members, Mock Trial’s previous adviser, Michael Williams, retired from coaching last year. Micah Kurzer, a statistics teacher at Grant, took over the role after being requested to by a group of his students. He was tentative at first, as he knew “about as much about law as you could get from an episode of Law & Order,” he says. After the students who initially tried to recruit him could not find another adviser, Kurzer agreed to take on the job. “We’re just really, really thankful for him,” says Sims. “We didn’t know what we were going to do if we didn’t get somebody to do it. And he’s like the perfect person.”
While every team was successful at the regional competition, members of each team unanimously agreed that Grant Black’s victory felt like the biggest win. “They’ve come a really long way, and I’m just really proud of them,” says Sims. “I think everybody was more excited that (Grant Black) was going than any other team … I cried when they were announced and not when we were announced.”
Another of Grant Blue’s co-captains, Isaac Nilsen, acknowledges the hard work put in by every member of the teams. “It was like, they said ‘The first team to qualify to state is Grant High School,’” says the Grant junior. “We were all expecting, is it blue or gray? And then they said black … Everyone was just so excited … then hearing the other two names as well was super awesome to know that we all got to stick around a couple more weeks and we’re all going to have an experience at state.”
On March 14, all three of Grant’s mock trial teams went to state. Grant Blue was ranked first and narrowly lost the final round to Jesuit High School, landing them in second place. They placed higher than any other public school in the state. While the competition was excitingly close, Sims says that “Most people are glad to not have to spend the rest of the year preparing for nationals.” Grant Grey was just a step behind and took third.
“Most importantly,” says Sims, Grant Black placed sixth overall, beating out multiple schools that have previously attended nationals. “My freshman year … we were the worst in the region,” says Sims. “16th. We never even dreamed of making it to state: suffice to say I’m so freaking proud of them.”
Two members of Grant Black, Luke Witherspoon and Margo Elliot, were each awarded for their exemplary performances as witnesses. Sims and Nora Isles, Grant Grey captain, were both awarded for their exemplary performances as attorneys.
