"We just practice and practice and practice," said Lihu'e attorney Ted Chihara, one of the team's coaches. "We started our season in September and finished on Mother's Day."

In mock-trial competitions, teams study a set of case facts and the students must be prepared to play the parts of attorneys and witnesses for either side. The Kaua'i High team had won the Hawai'i state mock-trial competition, which involved a vehicular homicide during a street drag race.

The national competition, May 5 to 7, held this year in Charlotte, N.C., required teams to prepare to argue both sides of a product liability case. That case involved the death of a race-car driver when a bolt holding his car seat sheared off during an accident. It was a suit by the driver's estate against the firm that supplied the seat.

After winning four trials against teams from other states, the Kaua'i group went up against the top team from California, which had also won all its trials. Kaua'i took the role of defendant and California, the plaintiff.

Kaua'i High mock-trial team members celebrate after their final trial in a national competition May 5 to 7 in Charlotte, N.C. Up to now the best national showing by a Hawai'i team had been 13th place. Kaua'i High teams have won eight of the past nine state championships. Photo by James Michael Ratcliffe

Two Kaua'i team members took individual honors during the competition — Parris Zina as an outstanding attorney, and Alexandra Sirois as an outstanding witness.

Kaua'i High has been a dominant force in mock-trial competitions in Hawai'i, having won eight of the past nine state competitions. A Hawai'i team's best showing before this year's event was in 1998, when a Kaua'i High team placed 13th nationwide.

Ratcliffe, who helped launch the mock-trial program at the school during the 1980s, said the success has helped increase mock trial's visibility at the campus.

"In the beginning, only a few students came out, and we had to ask if they had any friends who were interested. Now, we get 50 students when we start, and we have to weed them out," he said. Former students also come back to help coach the new teams.

The team that went to the nationals this year included Michelle Beck, Lauren Chun, Mari Graham, Nicholas Hasegawa, Amanda Savage, Sirois, Renee Wilson and Zina.

The program's coaches include Chihara, Ratcliffe, attorney and former mock-trial student Aric Fujii, former mock-trial participants Becky Sadamitsu and Cara Foley, and faculty members Dorothy Hoe and Edwin Sawyer.

For more information on mock trial in Hawai'i, see the Web site www.hawaiihsmocktrial.com.