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 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, with July 1st and 5th as 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.
An example, detailed daily schedule from the 2025 Coolidge Cup is available here. The 2026 daily schedule will be available a few weeks before the event.
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 below listed amounts. These amounts do not accumulate from round to round, meaning the champion does not receive the preceding quarterfinalist team and semifinalist prizes in addition to the champion team 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 Declamaton Contest begins with an asynchronous, video-based contest. Students choose one of the three excerpted speeches in this year’s speech packet and submit a video delivering it.
At the Coolidge Cup, each of the 12 qualifying students in this event will declaim multiple speech excerpts from speeches by President Coolidge. Some of these declamations will be delivered in front of one judge, and some will be delivered in front of judges and peers at one of our larger assemblies. Students will be scored at each of these, and ranked based on their cumulative scores. 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 (July 2nd and 3rd). 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 check back here in early 2026 for the judge registration form.
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.
Register for the Coolidge Cup
Registration for the 2026 Coolidge Cup will open after qualifying tournaments begin in October.
“Coming from an NSDA background, I was relatively unfamiliar with both the Coolidge debate format and the topic area surrounding the Jones Act. And if I’m being honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect at first as I boarded a plane from Los Angeles to travel across the entire United States. But over the course of the tournament, set against the stunning backdrop of Plymouth Notch, I came to deeply appreciate the format’s focus on clarity, substance, and civil discourse, along with the values of Calvin Coolidge. The experience challenged me to grow as a thinker and communicator in ways I hadn’t anticipated.
“Winning the Coolidge Cup was a tremendous honor, and I’m deeply thankful for both the recognition and the generous prize. More than anything, I’m grateful for the experience itself, from the engaging rounds, to the thoughtful conversations, to the values the Foundation continues to champion.” – James Miller, Westlake HS (CA) ’25, Harvard ’29, 2025 Coolidge Cup Champion