Team History

 

The Monroe High School Speech and Debate Team was restarted by Ms. Kathy Graber in 94-95 with just five interested students. It has grown to a team of about 80 and often has one of the largest tournament entries of all 30+ schools in our league. Individually students have won hundreds of trophies, medals, plaques and certificates, and several have won scholarships. Collectively the team has taken many tournament sweepstakes awards. We have so far produced 9 state champion individual speakers and many top seven placements. Our graduating speakers have gone on to prestigious universities like Yale, Harvard, U. Penn, Cornell, Brown, Pomona, Georgetown, USC, Vassar, Occidental, Smith, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Howard, UC Berkeley, and UCLA.

 

 

Monroe is a member of the Tri-Valley Forensic League, which includes approximately 30+ schools, stretching from the San Fernando Valley all the way up to Central California. Ms. Graber has served as league Treasurer, Vice-President, and has been Co-President (along with Mr. Jerome Robinson from Granada) since 2003. Other local schools in the league include Granada, Cleveland, Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies (SOCES), El Camino, Chaminade, Sierra Canyon, Taft, North Hollywood, Campbell Hall, Chaminade, Valencia, Hart, West Ranch, etc. All of the schools sponsor and host league and invitational tournaments throughout the school year. In late February and March the league holds its final contests known as the State Qualifiers. The top 5 winners in their respective events qualify to compete at the State Championship Tournament (“States”) held every April.