BOSTON — Nauset High senior Thomas White isn’t a lawyer, but he certainly sounds like one. He’s honed a presentation style that’s both eloquent and concise during his three years on the school’s mock trial team, traveling to courtrooms across the state to argue fictional cases against students from other Massachusetts high schools.

White, the team’s captain, was one of three Nauset students to receive perfect individual scores from the judge during a match against Sharon High School on March 13. The other two, Liv Prince and Lauren deRuyter, are also seniors.

The students were competing in the quarterfinal match of the 2024-25 state championship at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston. Nauset was one of just eight teams remaining from among 112 in the competition.

Nauset had already proved itself to be the best team in the Cape & Islands region, edging out Monomoy, Sturgis East, and Sturgis West. Nauset had also defeated Natick in the round of 14 prior to the showdown with Sharon. At that point, teams weren’t allowed to identify themselves based on schools — Nauset was simply “Region 1.”

Sharon, Region 9, edged out Nauset 98-95, winning the case and ending the team’s playoff run at the same spot where they finished in 2023. The Nauset team hasn’t yet made it past the Elite Eight round, but coach Katie McCully said that seeing all three of the team’s seniors receive perfect scores “took the sting away.”

The state’s mock trial program, which began in 1985, is a yearly competition organized by the Mass. Bar Association and designed to teach high school students about law and give them an opportunity to practice debate in a professional setting.

It’s different from traditional debating in two ways. There is an improvisational component, with witnesses as well as attorneys portrayed by students. And all participating teams receive the same case at the beginning of the year, which they use in every event until the end of the season.

A coin flip at the beginning of each trial determines which team will argue for the prosecution and which for the defense.

Nauset’s team works with professional lawyers from La Tanzi, Spaulding & Landreth in Orleans to prepare their arguments and practice delivering them.

The fictional characters in this year’s case were Alex Parker, a teenager who was injured in a car accident driving with a friend on the way home from a graduation party. The defendant is Devin Roy, the parent who hosted the party. Parker claims that Roy didn’t do enough to prevent underage party guests, including the driver, from getting access to alcohol in the house.

Of course, there are intricacies to the case. Parker admits to stealing alcohol from Roy’s stash, potentially proving that Roy’s security was lax but making his own character less sympathetic in the process. And was the traffic light green or red when the accident happened? The case leaves it up to the students to convince the judge about who is telling the truth.

That works for Prince, who says, “It’s the details I find engaging.”

A typical mock trial team consists of 12 students playing roles as witnesses and attorneys. But Nauset’s team had only 10 members this year, so some of the students had to double up on roles. When his team was assigned to prosecute, for example, White would deliver the closing argument and cross-examine the other team’s expert witness.

Sharon’s team was large enough to have separate lineups for the prosecution and defense, with most students filling single roles. Sharon High School is somewhat larger than Nauset, with 1,161 students to Nauset’s 737. McCully said that Sharon’s mock trial program has long been successful — they’ve taken the state title twice, in 2007 and 2021.

McCully said Sharon’s performance at the match was “fiery and dramatic” in contrast to Nauset’s more composed style. One of Sharon’s strategies was to make frequent objections to Nauset’s questions, which, even when overruled by the judge, cost the team precious time.

“It’s a strategy that’s technically against the rules, standing up and objecting to everything,” White said, “but it still throws us off, so we’ve been practicing dealing with that.”

Next year, McCully said, she’s going to try to have the Nauset team balance its professionalism with a bit more showmanship.

Prince said the seniors are leaving a team that is in a good place, with underclassmen who practiced every day and demonstrated a lot of confidence during the season’s trials.

White is headed to Arizona State University, where he’ll study to become an air traffic controller. What about studying law? “I can’t say I haven’t thought about it,” White allowed. “I’m planning on joining the mock trial team at ASU.”