Wayne High School’s Landen Sharer Takes First Place in Statewide Mock Trial News Writing Contest

Wayne High School student Landen Sharer earned top honors in the 2025 High School Mock Trial News Reporter Competition, held December 3, 2025, in conjunction with the Mock Trial State Championship. Sharer’s familiarity with this year’s case—and his extensive involvement in mock trial—helped propel his work to the top of the judges’ list.

During mock trial season, Sharer competed on one of four teams from Wayne coached by Retired Judge Robert Ensz, formerly of the District Court of the 7th Judicial District. His team was one of three Wayne teams to advance to the regional semifinal round this season, giving him a close-up understanding of the courtroom dynamics he later captured in his winning story.

Student journalists from McCook, Wayne, and York high schools participated in this year’s competition. Launched in 2018, the news reporter contest was created by the Nebraska State Bar Foundation’s Bench Media Committee to give aspiring journalists hands-on exposure to the legal system by reporting on live courtroom proceedings.  Professional journalists Sara Gentzler (Flatwater Free Press), Dave Schroeder (KRVN Radio), and Bill Kelly (Nebraska Public Media) served as scoring judges. 

In remarks recognizing the news writing competitors, Bar Foundation Secretary and Omaha attorney Ron Kraus noted that one of the journalist judges remarked that all three student reporters “could make it in the news industry” if they chose to pursue the profession. Kraus said he was impressed with every participant and even hinted that there could be job offers in their future.

Nebraska was the first in the country to offer a mock-trial news reporting contest, and several states have followed the lead. “Expansion of the Mock Trial Program to include a news reporting component has been a natural progression and has become an innovative way to enhance the educational opportunities of the Mock Trial program,” said Foundation Executive Director Doris Huffman.

Huffman noted that Nebraska has long held a leadership role in mock trial education. “The High School Mock Trial Program began with a handful of Midwestern states and went nationwide in the mid-1980s. Nebraska hosted one of the earliest regional high school competitions in 1985. More than 40 years later, we are going strong and have expanded the program’s focus into the critical area of court media coverage.”

The reporter competition is designed to help students interested in journalism learn how courts operate and how to cover legal proceedings accurately and ethically. Participants observed their schools’ morning-round state finals matches before taking part in a mentoring session led by Judge Todd Hutton and longtime Omaha journalist RoseAnn Shannon, formerly of KETV.

Shannon urged students to write as though they were describing the event to a friend and to identify the five most important moments they witnessed. Hutton drew parallels between the work of journalists and attorneys, noting that both professions filter large amounts of information—lawyers for judges and juries, and journalists for the public.

After the mentoring session, students had two hours to produce a news story based on the trial they observed. Mentors fielded questions about court coverage, identifying public interest angles, and crafting compelling leads—one of the key scoring categories in the contest.

Both the Mock Trial Program and the Student News Reporter Contest fall under the Bar Foundation’s Public Education Outreach Promoting the Law & Equity (PEOPLE) initiative, which supports civics and law-related education across Nebraska.

Photo (L-R): Teacher Coach Berkly Brummon, attorney coach Sandy Brown, student news reporter Landen Sharer, attorney coach Retired Judge Robert Ensz, and Teacher Coach Josh Johnson.