Constitution Team Places 2nd in state

Congratulations to Central Catholic’s Constitution Team for placing 2nd at the State Competition this past weekend! They have qualified for Nationals and will be heading to Washington, DC in April to compete (a first for Central Catholic)!

We are so proud of our students and all of their hard work and resilience in the face of so many obstacles. Thank you to Mr. Stuckart, our community partners, our alumni coaches, our parents, and our students for taking part in this important program.

Read on below to learn more about Central Catholic's Constitution Team and their journey to get to this point.

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February 3, 2022

Central Catholic’s Constitution team is set to compete at the state We the People competition this Saturday, February 5. After months of preparation and countless hours meeting, the team is excited to compete.

“I’m feeling ready,” says Story Arney ‘22, Central Catholic senior and member of the Constitution Team (Con Team).

“It’s going to be good,” adds Carmela Valdez, ‘22. “You get what you put into it, and Central Catholic’s Con Team is one that puts 100% into everything we do.”

The Rams Con Team is one of six teams advancing to the State Tournament after competing in the Regional Tournament two weeks prior, on January 22. With 10 schools represented at Regionals, Central Catholic’s team, which is comprised of six different units, scored high enough to earn a top spot.

We the People Program at Central Catholic

Con Team and its competition component are all part of Central Catholic’s We the People class, which is taught by longtime Social Studies teacher, Geoff Stuckart. This class, which is an honors level class, prepares students to participate in the We the People program, a national competition focused on public speaking and knowledge of the government. Students work in small groups, called units, with volunteer coaches (mostly attorneys and a few “government nerds”), to prepare written and oral responses to a set of detailed historical, philosophical, and practical governmental questions. 

“We traditionally meet every Monday night,” Geoff shares. “Students work in their units with their coaches for an hour and a half to two hours. So we’ve got the class and then we’ve got the team preparation that happens.” 

Outside of class and Monday night meetings, some units meet on the weekends to work on their responses. Laila Vickers ‘23 is part of one unit that puts in a lot of extra time. “We meet every weekend for about three hours,” she says. “It's quite a bit of time, but these meetings are when we did most of our beginning moots.” (Mooting is when the units conduct practice runs of the competition.)

All of this time and the commitment of the students are essential in preparing them for the competition. Each unit–composed of up to six students focused on a particular topic related to the U.S. Constitution, government, or current events–has two questions they have to answer. Throughout the semester, they work as a team and with their coaches to prepare the written and oral statements that answer each of these questions in four minutes or less.

“Your written statement has to be done before you start competing,” Carmela explains. “Usually you do it at least two months in advance. Your whole team does it together and you get help from your coaches.”

The time limitation is one aspect that makes writing a concise statement that fully answers the question difficult. Geoff explains, “The challenge is, if you look at any of these questions, it could take a whole month to cover a certain topic. And you have to condense it into a four minute answer.”

After students deliver their pre-written statement, the judges have the opportunity to ask follow-up questions. “The Q&A is actually a lot easier, because you have all this knowledge that you couldn’t fit into the statement and have this preparation with this evidence that you couldn’t cram into four minutes with follow-up questions,” Geoff says.

There are some strategies that the units follow in order to make the most of the little time they have for their statement.

“Our written statement is very general,” says Laila. “Our coach advised us to keep it really broad while still giving some information and opinions, and keeping it open at the end.”

“And you always have to cut out stuff that is just essential,” Geoff adds. “There’s just not enough time in four minutes to completely cover it. But one of the little tricks that we use is that we will list off or mention a couple of things–we call them bread crumbs–where you are signaling to the judges, ‘Hey ask me a questions about this thing, I’m going to give you this court case but I’m not going to explain it, please ask me about it in the follow up.’ So you’re trying to communicate with the judges in that way, because you can’t explain everything that goes into it.”

Judges ask three to four questions of each unit, and students work as a team to answer these questions. “You’re graded on how you address that question, so you want to make sure that you have evidence that is specifically tailored to fit your question,” Carmela explains.

Challenges this Year

This year has presented a multitude of challenges for the team. One of the most glaring challenges has been COVID and the move to online competition. 

“That was a big thing that affected everyone,” Carmela explains. “A big hope for us as a team was to finally get to compete in person and have a normal year, and that just didn’t happen.”

“It’s been a rollercoaster,” Geoff says. “This year started with the promise of in-person, and we were doing everything to prepare for an in-person competition. Then, mid-December we get the word that we’re going online. So we spent winter break reconfiguring everything to get ready for an online competition.”

He continues, “The body language and the cues they learn to give each other about who is going to answer are so important, and then you move to an online environment where you don’t get that anymore. So it’s a real skill to pivot to competing online.”

Despite these challenges, there are some advantages to being well-versed in using Zoom. 

“Last year I did Constitution Club and it was completely remote, and I know that impacted my unit and the team” shares Kate Stuckart ‘23. “Moving forward to this year, having people who are used to Zoom competition probably helped us in some ways.”

As they prepare for their competition on Saturday, the students reflect back on their semester with much gratitude and appreciation, and they want others to know the benefits of going through this program.

“As a team, we’ve learned so much and I feel like I’ve developed so much,” says Sean Nickerson ‘22.

“After you take this class and go through the program, even if you knew nothing about government and politics before, you will end up knowing more than probably 90% of the people about the issues of the day,” Story explains.

“The amount of media literacy and political literacy that you gain in this class is so important,” adds Kate. “Even if you’re not a history person or a government person, it’s so important to have people who understand different parts. Everyone needs to understand how our government works, and this program does that.”