The Albert Lea mock trial team is once again headed to the state tournament.

The team, made up of Annabelle Randall, Addison Petersen, Sean Laurie, Macy Paul, Sergio Salgado, Sami Klapperick, Stuart Behling and Shelby Illg will head to the Olmsted County Courthouse Tuesday and Wednesday to compete in the state tournament.

“We’re working really hard to polish both defense and prosecution,” Randall said. “At the tournament we’ll have to play both sides.”

Throughout the season the team has argued for both the defense and the prosecution involving a fictional case. The case they have been studying inside and out is Detective Rook E. Greenwood vs. Chief Billie Durden. The gist of the made-up case is that Greenwood is claiming he was wrongfully fired for a statement he made on a social networking site; Durden is claiming Greenwood was fired for poor job performance.

The team will compete at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday and at 10 a.m. Wednesday. The public is invited to attend the trials.

“We always have a really fun time with the whole state experience,” Randall said.

Last year the team placed sixth out of 12 teams in the state after being narrowly defeated by the 2010 national champions of Breck High School. There are about 90 mock trial teams in the state.

The varsity team beat Waseca High School 215-199 on Jan. 19, beat Northfield High School 229-210 on Jan. 26, beat Pine Island High School 224-199 on Jan. 31, beat Northfield High School 228-226 on Feb. 16 and beat Owatonna High School 234-224 on Feb. 22, which got them the trip to state. Three other teams from Albert Lea throughout the season, but only the varsity made it to the state tournament.

The teams, coached by Neil Chalmers, started competition in January, but also took part in scrimmages before then. Chalmers said the team has had great support from the community including use of Freeborn County District Courtrooms for practices and competitions. He said police department employees and lawyers in the community have also helped the students understand parts of the case and helped with their arguments.