The 37th Annual Texas State Mock Trial Competition starts Friday at the George Allen Courthouse.
Twenty-eight teams from across the state will present a fictional civil court case in front of a judge. This year's case involves a drone that is shot out of the sky and kills a dog.
The mock trial team from the Frisco Independent School District's Career and Technical Education Center is making its first trip to state.
"We did really well, but I think it was a surprise because we've only ever advanced to regional finals before," said Toni DeGraff, a senior and the team captain.
The students first started learning about this case back in October. They practiced one or twice a week, memorizing affidavits and figuring out how this case is best fought in court.
"I think we work really well together," said DeGraff. "I think we have a general consensus of how things are going with each other. And then we know the case packet well enough to like one witness could testify for another witness."
CTE Center's mock trial coach Ben Ewald believes this year's group made it to state because of their willingness to practice this case several hours a week outside of the classroom.
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"It's the extra time that they put in that I think has made a real difference," said Ewald. "Because they do know each other's parts. In the past, one student might really have theirs down, but not know another student's very well. They're very interchangeable with this group."
Ewald said not all of his students go on to be lawyers. He said the CTE Center is a good place for students to realize they want to study law before they get into law school and realize it's not for them.
Whichever mock trial team wins state on Saturday will advance to nationals in May, presenting a completely new court case.
