This past weekend, DP’s mock trial teams made their way down to the courthouse where they competed in the first round of the annual Mock Trial County Competition. After hours of competition, between DP’s JV and Varsity teams, as well as Laguna Blanca, DP’s Varsity came out on top. This victory allows Dos Pueblos to advance onto the semifinals this Saturday, March 4th.

“The first weekend is the first step. I’m very happy with our performance at that first step, but now we’ve got to get through the really difficult, really important part, semifinals and finals,” senior Maxfield Steele said.

This weekend, DP will meet Santa Barbara High School in the semifinals. If they win, they will move on to the finals, facing the winner of the matchup between DP’s JV team and San Marcos. For years, DP and SM have met in the finals, each taking two of the last four county championship victories.

“It’s just always a super high pressure trial. It’s almost unlike any other trial because when people go in, everyone is just super nervous or it’s almost like people get paralyzed,” senior Jacob Molina said.

While JV and Varsity are both competing this weekend, unlike other sports, they cannot communicate or share information. In order to succeed, captains believe they will need to have confidence and keep the right mindset throughout the competition.

“I don’t think there is much use getting nervous before competitions. The whole thing is, if you look confident, you get scored better,” Max said.

The winning team of this weekend’s event gets to represent all of Santa Barbara county in the upcoming state competition.

“They’re all very smart people, all very talented people. I have excelling faith for this competition,” Max said.