“I’m just proud to say we made it this far and ended on a good note. I have no regrets about pulling out,” said Kaitlyn Serikaku, a team captain for Seventh-day Adventist-owned Loma Linda Academy’s mock trial team. The team withdrew from the San Bernardino, California School District Mock Trial competition when semifinals fell on Saturday, or Sabbath, December 9.

Since then, the surrounding community has joined in support of the students’ decision. “We are proud of our Academy students,” said Marion Gamundoy, a team coach and Claims Counsel with the Riverside, California office of Adventist Risk Management. “They had to choose between participating in the competition and standing by their religious beliefs. They made the right decision.”

When the Loma Linda Academy team joined the competition, it was their mock trial debut. “We had no idea we were going to make it [to the semifinals],” said Serikaku. But when the team won Round 4, Gamundoy, along with Ted Steam, another team coach, discussed the issue of Sabbath observance with the school district superintendent. Academy representatives were informed that competition rescheduling requests had to be submitted ahead of time in writing.

Gamundoy reports that several local attorneys and judges volunteered to accommodate the Academy team by scoring the competition on Friday, when courthouses were likely to have ample courtrooms available for the competition. “Time just ran out,” Gamundoy said, but “based on the response of San Bernardino County attorneys and judges, the District Attorney indicates he plans to make accommodations next year.”

A local newspaper, the Redlands Daily Facts, reported that in the competition’s 25-year history, the 18-member Loma Linda Academy team represented the first private school to advance to semifinals and the only team ever to withdraw. “It would have been nice to see how far we would have made it,” said Tyler McCulloch, another team captain, according to same article, “but religion matters more than competition.”

Since the team withdrew, local church leaders and trial coaches of all denominations have rallied around the students’ ruling in favor of Sabbath observance. “In a society that is so quick to throw out God, it’s great to see young people take God more seriously than a trophy,” said a former coach.