NP3 Participates in Virtual Mock Trial Scrimmage

By Nayab Mehmood
Staff Writer | The Pacific Times

The NP3 Mock Trial team had their first virtual scrimmage Saturday Nov. 7 with Tamalpais High School of Marin County.

This was the first scrimmage of the year the team had with another school. The term scrimmage refers to a practice trial.

The team had mixed feelings prior to the scrimmage.

NP3 senior Karina Twergo, a returning team member to the team, noted that the team did have a practice scrimmage with itself.

“…doing these trials virtually is definitely do-able,” said Twergo. “There are a lot of differences in how you hold yourself for a courtroom versus a camera. We no longer have to be hyper aware of our voice projection or gestures…Our focus now has to be on our confidence and making that show through screen, which will prove to be very difficult.”

Yet even with the challenges, Twergo added, the “…virtual mock trial gives more people the chance to participate…we have gained a lot of new members…I think that is a good thing, since mock trial is important for youth, so the more people involved the better.”

Like Twergo, Khadijah Muhammad, a junior at NP3 and also a returning team member this year, acknowledged that tech issues may arise. But she did see benefit in the scrimmage.

“This experience will help me be more familiar with this new trial system and I will be…more prepared for the actual competition in January,” she said.

Janelle Calma, a junior that joined the team this year, shared that this scrimmage made her “…really excited…but…sad we won’t be in the courtroom in person.”

Calma added that the virtual scrimmage would be “…educating us [mock trial members] on how it will be from now on.” Calma also agreed on the challenge of technical issues awaiting members during the scrimmage.

Coach of the Np3 Mock Trial Team, Staci Osborn, said she tried to come up with ways to reduce the possibility of technical issues arising. And that “…the advantages outweigh the disadvantages…” when it came to participating in the scrimmage.

Osborn said, “…I thought maybe I can find a bunch of headphone sets…and find a way to send those out to…people on the team who don’t have them so that with the microphone hanging off the earpiece, that might make some of the audio a little bit better…”

After the scrimmage, the team debriefed and is already preparing for their next one on Nov. 21.