JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Salem High School's forensics team coach Mark Ingerson laughs as team members Michael Robertson (left) and Jerrel Ledbetter tell him their plan for opening Thursday's show.

JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Michael Robertson, a master of ceremonies for Thursday's performance, puts on a mustache before taking the stage.

On Thursday night, a dozen Salem High School students, all dressed sharply enough for the opera, huddled in a hallway to warm up their voices.

"Mee! May! My! Moe! Moo!" the exercises began. That was followed by a bouncing chant that went, "Let me see your butt!" Needless to say, it was not opera night.

The evening called for a performance of another kind: forensics.

Forensics? The word may need an explanation. It's not crime scenes and cadavers, but the sport of competitive public speaking. It comes in several stripes, from theatrical monologues that play like stand-up comedy to impromptu discussions of foreign policy.

Since 2006, Salem High has been the best at it in the state for a school its size, winning three state titles in a row. About 5 a.m. today, the team is scheduled to board a bus for the state meet in Harrisonburg. With a good shot at a fourth title today, it almost seems inevitable to say: Salem High, forensics dynasty.

"I'm not cocky, but I do not plan on losing," said Jonathan Walker, a senior with an elastic face for comedy, who was crowned state champ the past two years in poetry interpretation.

This year, he is entered in the category of duo, a two-person performance -- one of 15 entries Salem High will send to Harrisonburg. The long roster gives the team an edge in the point totals.

Blacksburg High School, last year's runner-up and a forensics powerhouse that has won a slew of state titles, has five entries this year.

"They're very polished in their performances and very well practiced," said Shelly Ferraraccio, a Blacksburg High coach.

The success of the Salem team stems from a heated forensics scene.

There is the forensics table at lunch, and a few team members go to forensics summer camp. ("Literally, we do forensics all day," one former camper said.) Experienced "forensicators" help the rookies along, and often lead practices.

Then there is the coach, Mark Ingerson. The 36-year-old world history teacher is a former high school actor and Air Force vet with a considerable appetite for Diet Mountain Dew. This year, he was named teacher of the year for the Salem school system. But to the team, he is sometimes "Mingerson," or simply "Ming."

Ingerson took over school forensics in the fall of 2001. He taught the subtleties of dramatic flair, for pausing or shouting or embracing an unusual character. The coach slowly built momentum for the program, pushing more and more students into the state finals, winning the first title in 2006.

"He has crazy amounts of energy and determination," said Danielle Stump, a senior and returning state champ.

At Thursday's forensics night, Ingerson introduced the team to the full high school auditorium, ticking off the success of recent years. Backstage, the forensicators had started practicing their performances on a wall, an exercise on maintaining focus.

The hallway filled with a chorus of dialects, the sounds of a Southern preacher, a Valley girl, an Australian. Sometimes, a half-dozen voices spilled out of the same mouth in a minute.

Then the team took the stage, for its final performance before Harrisonburg.

In one sense, the state tournament may be a bit of an anticlimax for Salem after the team won a national meet in Charlotte, N.C., in the winter, beating out 50 schools from around the country. But a victory at states always brings a special reward in Salem.

"You don't get a ring for winning nationals," Walker said, referring to the city's practice of giving its winning teams a memento.

"You get the bling for winning this."