For the 2015-2016 school year, four new coaches, Marcie Gardner, Chris Gardner, Lainie Tennant, and Laura Fragoso have been appointed to coach the CHS Mock Trial team. In previous years, the team only had one coach. This year though, there
will be four instructors to split their responsibilities. Unfortunately, on Sept. 30, Donna Hecht, the former coach, retired from her position after being with the Mock Trial team for the past six years. This year, the four new coaches plan on helping students develop their public voices and encourage public speaking.

Donna Hecht, the long-time standing coach of the mock trial team, retired from her voluntary position. Hecht was the only coach during her six years with the CHS team and was honored as the 2014-2015 Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF) Outstanding Mock Trial Coach of the Year out of over 80 coaches.

Dorothy Kang is a senior and has been a part of Mock Trial since her freshman year and currently stands as the Captain of the Mock Trial team. She has been the leading defense witness since and will greatly miss Hecht as their coach. However, she looks forward to a new year with the new instructors.

“I will really miss Mrs. Hecht as our coach, but I’m also very happy with our 4 new coaches. They’ve been doing an awesome job, so I am anticipating a successful season,” Kang said.

Marcie Gardner, who is the leading coach, is currently an attorney for Claremont Mckenna College. Fragoso works as a district attorney and prosecutor for San Bernardino County and has been licensed for 14 years. Tennant, another coach, has worked as the deputy public defender for the Los Angeles County for 26 years, and works on cases defending adults who are accused with felonies. Lastly, Chris Gardner worked at a private practice specializing in juvenile defense for the 10 years after attending law school and currently is the assistant public defender of San Bernardino for the past five years. These coaches wish to help the students at Mock Trial have fun, gain more experience, look beyond what most people believe law is to be, and help them understand what it takes to stand in court.