Overview
The Coolidge Cup is a national invitational speech and debate tournament sponsored by the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. It is held in President Coolidge’s historic hometown of Plymouth, Vermont, and takes place each year during the week of the Fourth of July. More than $20,000 in scholarship prize money is awarded to the top finishers. The competition days are July 2, 3, and 4, with July 1 and 5 as travel days. It is a fully chaperoned experience (meaning students are not required to attend with a parent or coach), and most travel expenses are covered for competitors.
Registration is now open, with a deadline of Tuesday, May 26, 2026. Be sure to review the tournament travel information before completing the form. A tentative daily schedule for the 2026 Coolidge Cup is available here.
If you would prefer to register in a separate window, you can do so here.
How to Qualify
The Coolidge Cup features one speech event (Declamation) and one debate event (Coolidge 1v1 “Singles” Debate). To compete in the Coolidge Cup, students must qualify via the Coolidge National Declamation Contest or through the Coolidge National Debate Tournament Series. See the list of qualifying methods for details. 12 students are invited to compete in Declamation, and roughly 80 students are invited to compete in Debate at the Coolidge Cup.
Prizes
More than $20,000 in scholarship prizes will be awarded at this year’s Coolidge Cup, and the champion will receive the Robert L. Luddy Cup. Debaters advancing to octafinals or beyond will receive cash scholarship prizes in the listed amounts. These amounts do not accumulate from round to round, meaning the champion does not receive the preceding quarterfinalist and semifinalist prizes in addition to the champion prize. Students must participate in the debate round for which the prize is being awarded in order to claim their prize.
| Champion | $6,000.00 |
| 2nd Place | $3,000.00 |
| Semifinalists (2) | $2,000.00 |
| Quarterfinalists (4) | $1,000.00 |
| Octafinalists (8) | $500.00 |
Declamation Format
The Coolidge National Declamation Contest begins with an asynchronous, video-based contest. Students submit a video delivering the excerpted texts for this year.
At the Coolidge Cup, each of the 12 qualifying students in this event will declaim multiple speech excerpts from speeches by President Coolidge. Six of these declamations will be delivered in front of one judge, and one will be delivered in front of judges and peers at one of our larger assemblies. Students will be ranked at each of these, and the finishing order will be based on their cumulative ranks. These speeches are assigned a few weeks in advance of the tournament so that students may familiarize themselves with the material. It is not expected that students memorize the speech excerpts.
Debate Format, Resolution, & Research Brief
For debate, students will compete in the Coolidge 1v1 “Singles” format for six preliminary rounds over the first two days of the tournament. All debaters with four or more wins will advance to the elimination portion of the tournament, eventually ending in a championship round on July 4th. The 2026 Coolidge Cup Debate topic will be announced a few weeks before the tournament.
Volunteer to Judge at the Coolidge Cup
The Coolidge Foundation highly values the idea of the “citizen judge,” as we believe that good speech and debate should be aimed at making a logical case that any person can understand. Volunteer judges do not need any prior experience in speech, debate, or judging. If you are interested in judging, take a look at our information for judges. We will provide all the judge training you need. If you are interested in judging, please register here.
Competitors are not obligated to provide a certain number of judges. However, if your coach or family member is joining you at the Coolidge Cup and is interested in judging, they can indicate that they would like to judge when registering.
2025 Coolidge Cup Gallery
Highlights from our 10th annual championship tournament
— Plymouth Notch, Vermont —