Meet “Robo-Ann” Miura

It’s sometimes hard to get in contact with past champion debaters when they’re no longer as actively involved in the community…but that’s not the case when your coach was Victor Jih!

Today, we’re happy to welcome former Palo Alto debater (and past Berkeley and TOC champion) Ann Miura to reflect briefly on a variety of issues and memories. In this exclusive VBD interview, you can read about her thoughts on debate, life after debate, and, yes, being coached by Victor.

Jon Cruz: Ann, you won the TOC in 1994 after a very successful career based largely in California. Tell us about what you’re doing now.

Ann Miura: I’m in graduate school at Stanford getting my Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering. I’m creating risk based models for information and network security. Prior to that I worked for five years at McKinsey and Charles River Ventures. I graduated from Yale in ‘98 with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

In more exciting news, I’m married. Victor Jih attended my wedding. I keep in touch with lots of ex-debaters. I think they are the most wildly successful people out of all of my friends!

JC: In what ways did debate help contribute to your post-high school career?

AM: Debate impacts my life in lots of ways I notice and probably many ways in which I do not. The ways I notice - I win any argument with my husband and parents! Also, given that I have entered into a career in engineering, lots of people also think it’s interesting that I have this “humanities” skill set. I think it makes people perceive me as well rounded.

JC: Do you miss debating? If so, what do you miss about it?

AM: I do. I think I’ll force my kids to do it so that I can live vicariously through them. I miss the thrill of the win - that moment when you really know you’ve got your opponent caught in a contradiction. I really miss cross-examination. I liked the direct confrontation we got to have for those few minutes. But most of all, I think I miss the people. It was a really fun group of friends I made and it was even more fun to see them in random places around the country.

JC: How did you get involved in debate?

AM: I was actually incredibly shy as a freshman in high school. I used to do piano recitals and was so afraid to speak in public that my brother had to get up on stage with me, announce my name and the piece I was going to play. Freshman year of high school I decided that I needed to face this fear and joined the debate team. There I met some fantastic girls who were juniors who really took me under their wing. They helped me come out of my shell and after I got to the final round of my first novice tournament, I was hooked.

JC: Beyond TOC, tell us about your career, or, at least, what you remember.

AM: Gosh. This is over ten years ago folks. I remember that I was a terrible debater my freshman and sophomore year. Once I went varsity I think I had losing record for two straight years. It got so bad that my parents even suggested that I quit after my sophomore year. I struck a deal with them that if in my first few tournaments junior year i didn’t break, I would quit. Something clicked for me that summer - I think it was attending Victory Briefs Institute - but I came back with a lot more confidence in myself. That year I think I closed out Stanford tournament with a teammate, took second at state and broke at TOC. The next year I won Berkeley and won TOC!

JC: What was it like to have Victor as a coach? How would you describe his coaching style back then?

AM: I think I met Victor first when he was something like 16 and in college. He was some sort of ridiculous genius type. But let’s face it, he was a teenager just like the rest of us so he was immature and dorky. Still, he was brilliant. He was the main influence in creating me as a debater. What I remember most about Victor was that he really loved constructing and deconstructing arguments with us. He was a hands on coach who would actually come to our rounds and listen in through the door.

JC: I could talk about the influence Victor has had on me, and on many of my colleagues, but that would probably be too corny. [laughs]

You were the first person from California to win the TOC. California is now one of the most competitive states in the nation. Does it feel cool knowing you were one of the first?

I didn’t know that. That’s pretty cool. Although, I think back in my day, even though there weren’t a lot of people travelling to TOC, my league was unbelievably competitive with probably four or five debaters who were nationally competitive - always getting to the final rounds at national tournaments they chose to attend. I was the only one out of them to go to TOC. I always thought that if they had attended, winning TOC would have been twice as hard. I’m glad to hear that debaters from California are better represented now.

JC: Do you have any specific memories about TOC? You faced a very tough opponent, Vestavia’s Claire Carmen, in finals. She was also top speaker at the tournament.

I actually don’t remember much about that round. All I remember was that she was a very polite debater who had a very slow elegant speaking style. I was much more aggressive and fast and had trouble adjusting. I don’t even remember the topic at this point but I do remember that I missed prom to go to TOC. I was depressed my first night at TOC and my coach had to really cheer me up. At the end of the day, it was worth it.

JC: How would you describe your own personal debate style at the time?

Lots of people used to call me Robo-Ann. I think I wasn’t stylistically very elegant but I always had lots of responses to any argument. I prepared well for tournaments always going through almost all the possible arguments I could conceive and trying to figure out how I would attack those given the case I had.

JC: Did you remain involved in debate in any ways after high school?

I did not. I always dream of helping to coach a team and almost got involved this year but the team ended up morphing into a mock trial team and dropped their debating.

JC: If you could give one piece of advice to debaters who want to meet your level of success, what would it be?

Prepare, prepare, prepare. High school debate is one of those activities that rewards those who prepare the most. Whether it’s reading articles, books, etc. or it’s listing out arguments and debating yourself or friends or coaches, it all helps at the end of the day.

I also have to give a ton of credit to my coaches. We had a fabulous coaching staff. My high school didn’t have a faculty sponsor so we had a team of undergrads from Stanford who were passionate about speech and debate. They were committed to coming to our school several hours a week on weekdays and coming to tournaments for the full weekend. I can’t imagine how they did that but they did.

Finally, my dad was such a committed judge. I think my senior year first semester I attended something like fourteen tournaments and my dad came to almost all of them to judge for me.

So, bottom line: I tried to do my end of the bargain by working hard, practicing, learning, and listening but I also didn’t do it alone. I had parents and coaches who really backed me up. It was really worth it. I love the people I met and the experiences I had.

JC: That’s awesome. Thank you, Ann!

–
Ann Miura is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University. Victor Jih, still dorky not certainly not immature, graduated Harvard Law School after coaching at Palo Alto and is now an attorney in Los Angeles and is the owner and managing partner of Victory Briefs.

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