The ULM Mock Trial Team completed their second season within the American Mock Trial Association and finished ranked 10th.

ULM’s Mock Trial Team is made up of two groups: a gold team and a maroon team. The gold team placed 10th out the 22 teams.

According to gold team captain Gabriel Silva, ULM is the only public university in Louisiana to offer a mock trial team.

Silva, a senior finance and political science major, was exposed to the program through his political science class with advisor to the team Joshua Stockley.

“We started last year, brand new and today we have students from different backgrounds,” Silva said.

Facing off against the number one ranked team in the nation, Florida State University, was a challenging experience for Silva. They lost by five points.

“They probably have a lot more support from their school and a lot more money, so it was really exciting to compete against them and see that we were able to play on the level of national champions,” Silva said.

Before the round started, FSU was allegedly cocky and slightly rude to team members, but changed attitudes once the round started.

“That doesn’t really happen that much, I mean it is a competition but the man who organized the competition in Mississippi said that we have to realize that those we are competing against are those we’re probably going to law school with,” Silva said.

The team uses strategy when approaching a case, from the witnesses all the way to the lawyers; each team member has a job to do.

“Every case is like painting a picture. We have a case, and we have to paint the picture of what happened for the jury. The only way to do that is that you have an order of evidence you have to present. Everything lays a foundation for later,” Silva said.

Silva hopes that the team will continue to flourish and someday make it all the way to the national competition.

“We didn’t go to nationals this year because of three points. And we’ve grown so much over the past two years. We were able to put on a trial here at ULM, and to show the university what we do was a big deal,” Silva said.

Maroon team witness Olivia Sage joined late in the season before the team’s biggest competition.

Sage, a sophomore history major, has to memorize a character and improve with her “lawyer.”

“I started for the acting, but now I’m really interested in the law as well. Hopefully next season I’ll play a larger role in recruitment and training,” Sage said.

Sage said the competition was intense, but a positive experience.

“We did really well, and put up a good fight,” Sage said.

Raya Boyte, a senior political science major, thinks the team’s accomplishments are remarkable given their available resources.

They went against larger schools with larger budgets and more experience.

“All of our funding came from our amazing donors and our pockets. I’d like to see the team grow and be able to take part in much larger events. We have the talent,” Boyte said.

Boyte enjoyed growing closer with her teammates. She hopes to continue watching the program flourish.

“We started out as a group of strangers. It was fun to watch us all form into not only a little family, but a family who could definitely hold their own against schools with much more experience and funding,” Boyte said.