Mock Trial is an opportunity for high school students to get a feel of what it is like to be part of a case, playing roles like lawyers or witnesses. After more than 15 years without a team for Mock Trial,  Jessica Trier and 11 students prepared themselves to compete in the next “Iowa High School Mock Trial Competition” on Tuesday, March 8. 

“I helped with this probably more than 15 years ago. I helped previously when we had it, but then no one wanted to do it for a while, so we haven’t had an actual team since then,” shared coach Trier. 

Each year, the Mock Trial Competition have a new case and this year it was a triple murder. The students of the team started preparing themselves during Christmas break when they got the information about the case. After the break, the team had to start sharing and preparing themselves in small groups, to work on which questions they should ask as lawyers and how the witnesses should answer. 

“My favorite thing about Mock Trial is getting to practice cross examination,” said Meadow Piller, a team member. 

In February, the group started practicing more days than usual to have everything perfect for the competition. The team competes against six other high schools. There are two rounds, one where they play as the prosecution side that will be against one school and another round where they play as the defense side against another school. 

But not everything is about competing to win and go onto State. The team have a good relationship with each other and like to have fun with each other, which is why the members of the team and the coach invite people to join the group next year. 

“It is a lot of fun, the schedule changes from one year to another, it may not be as many days, as it is based on each person’s schedule. It is not always going to be the same way, but we are always looking for others to add to it, so we can continue doing this,” said Trier. 

Everyone in the team was really involved with the competition and ready to go onto State and  They did hard work and they were hoping to win because they did a really good team work and they made a big effort. 

“Everybody has been working really hard […] we have been trying to go without our scripts for a week before the competition just so we are ready, to be better prepared  going to the competition. It’s fun to see all of these things come together when I know exactly how we were in the beginning,” expressed Trier. 

The team competed against two area schools.  On the prosecution side, the NPMT team split the judges (one voted NP as winner, one voted the opponent as winner.). On the defense side, the team stood their ground and the defendant was found “not guilty”, but they were outscored in points.