Aila Boyd
aboyd@mainstreetnewspapers.com
Mark Ingerson announced his retirement from coaching Tuesday, stepping away from a career that produced decades of success for Salem High School’s speech and debate programs.
The announcement came two days after Ingerson was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and less than a month after Salem’s speech team captured its 20th consecutive Virginia High School League state championship.
Ingerson spent 24 years as head coach of the forensics team, now known as speech, and as coach of the school’s debate team. During that time, his teams won 21 VHSL state titles, including a state-record 20 consecutive championships in speech. He also mentored 113 individual state champions.
In early 2025, Ingerson was named the National Federation of State High School Associations’ outstanding speech and debate educator of the year in Virginia. On April 19, he was inducted into the VHSL Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2026.
Ingerson has been a member of the Salem High School faculty since 2000 and was named Salem’s Teacher of the Year and Region VI’s overall Teacher of the Year in 2009.
Elliott Petry will take over the program. Petry, a math instructor at Salem High School since 2015, has served as an assistant coach under Ingerson and is also the girls varsity cross country coach. He teaches math at both Salem High School and Andrew Lewis Middle School.
