On April 26, members of the Princess Anne debate team traveled to James Madison University to participate in the VHSL Debate Championships. They left with a team first place trophy, several individual medals, and a reputation as some of the toughest competitors in the state of Virginia. The team is to be honored by the Virginia Beach City Public Schools School Board on June 24 for their win.

Junior Mia Spruill went undefeated at the championships, and won first place state champion in her debate style, Lincoln Douglas. Freshman Ira Ronanki and sophomore Lili Couture, who competed in policy debate, were also first place state champions. Additionally, Couture was awarded first place top policy speaker. 

For these competitors, participating in and placing highly in the state championship was just the next step in a year of successful debate. Unlike other sports, it is not necessarily correct to say that debate is “in season” at any point in the year. “Debate is a year-round sport,” Spruill emphasized. “You have to really be practicing your research skills for all the topics.”

While debate takes place all year round, and the competitors spend that entire period keeping up their skills, the process for making it to the  state competition typically starts with the regional competition in February. However, this year that changed. “The very first tournament where we could qualify to get on the track to states was pushed back because of snow,” explained freshman Ava Walters. Walters also went to states, to compete in public forum debate with her partner Deena Hussein. Regionals are followed by super regionals, and then states. 

This delay, according to Spruill, presented a challenge for the competitors when it came to advancing from regionals to super regionals. “There was only a week turnaround, so we really had to make sure that we were researching as much as possible and compiling our cases,” she shared. 

Despite this short time frame, the competitors performed well at both regionals and super regionals. Couture and Ronanki took second place at regionals, and because of the limited number of people, skipped super regionals to advance directly to states. Spruill placed first at regionals, and Walter and Hussein placed second. Additionally, senior Reagan McGrath, who competes in student congress, placed at regionals, and was able to advance onto states. 

While the team performed well throughout the process to get to states, they share it was not exactly easy. “I think we have a very competitive region,” shared Spruill. “[For] super regionals, we were kind of at a disadvantage because the other region had been debating that topic for their regionals, whereas we were one topic behind. So we had to do twice the research in half the time.” 

Additionally, Couture says she experienced challenges with finding a partner, and getting on the path to go to states. She explained that she didn’t start working with Ronanki until a few weeks before regionals started, and Ronanki had to familiarize herself with everything in that short time period. “It was stressful for me because I was coming in a few weeks before regionals, and I had to learn all this stuff,” she shared.

These challenges, however, did not prevent the team from taking first place, a moment that all of them agreed was extremely special. “It was just so amazing,” shared Walters. “I felt so proud of everyone.” Ronanki echoed the sentiment, adding that the moment when she and Couture found out they placed first for policy was a great experience.

While this year of debate certainly had a satisfactory ending, the team shared they still have some more goals they would like to accomplish. Spruill, who is the president for the 2025-2026 year, shared that she would like to see some of their competitors go even further than states. “I really, really want to take someone to nationals,” she explained. Nationals will be taking place in Richmond, Virginia next year, which Spruill explained makes it feel like the perfect opportunity. “It’s not only feasible, it’s local,” she elaborated. 

Couture, who is the 2025-2026 publicist, agreed that going to nationals is a goal for her as well, adding, “I think that’s something that’s definitely achievable with our strong team.”