Speech & Debate

Coolidge Arkansas Open

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The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation is proud to announce its second annual Coolidge Arkansas Open, a one-day debate tournament that will be held on Saturday, February 14, 2026, in Rogers, Arkansas. We are excited to bring a Coolidge Cup qualifying tournament to Rogers Heritage High School and the northwest Arkansas region again this year!

Overview of the Tournament
Date: Saturday, February 14, 2026.
Times: A detailed schedule is available here. Please plan to arrive no later than 8:30 AM. Awards will conclude by 4:30 PM.
Format: 1v1 Coolidge debate format.
Location:  Rogers Heritage High School, 1114 South 5th Street, Rogers, Arkansas, 72756.
Eligibility: All students currently enrolled in grades 6-12.
Cost: Free with lunch provided.
Registration: Registration closes Thursday, February 10, at 11:59 PM CDT. Entries will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. If and when we reach capacity, we will move to a waiting list ordered by time of entry.
Judges: Volunteer citizen judges are provided; attendees have no requirement to provide judges but are encouraged to provide judges at a ratio of one judge for every two competitors or fraction thereof.
Attire: Business professional.

Resolution and Research Brief
At this tournament, students will debate our spring 2026 topic, “Resolved: The United States federal government should repeal the Wagner Act.” We have prepared a research brief to assist students in their preparation, though students are welcome to make well-researched, logical arguments beyond the material found in the brief.

Tournament Structure
Participants will begin Saturday with a topic seminar from a subject matter expert, followed by lunch and four rounds of competition for all competitors. Competitors will be paired randomly for round one, and paired high-low within brackets thereafter. To clarify, this means students debate an opponent with the same win-loss record as their own from round two onwards.

The top four finishers in the Open/Varsity division will each receive an invitation and paid travel to the 2026 Coolidge Cup, which is a national invitational speech and debate tournament sponsored by the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and held in President Coolidge’s historic hometown of Plymouth, Vermont, on July 2-4, 2026. Learn more about the Coolidge Cup.

Divisions
The tournament will have three divisions: Middle School, High School Novice, and High School Open/Varsity.

  • All students in grades 6-8 must enter the Middle School division since they are not eligible to earn Coolidge Cup qualification. Only students in grades 6-8 may compete in the middle school division.
  • High school students with no experience or minimal experience may elect to participate in the Novice division. (We define a novice as a high school debater who is in their first year of any speech and debate competition.)
  • High School students with experience debating in either the Coolidge Debate League or other leagues should participate in the Open/Varsity division. Any student in grades 9-12 may choose to enter the Open/Varsity division.

Format and Style
Students will compete in the Coolidge 1v1 debate format, the same format that is used at the Coolidge Cup. For those new to debating in this format, we highly recommend reviewing our debate education resources that provide information about this particular style and rules. Consistent with Coolidge debate’s mission, this tournament will recruit and use volunteer citizen judges. Schools are not required to provide judges for this tournament but are encouraged to do so at a ratio of one judge for every two competitors or fraction thereof. Please ensure that any volunteer judges you recruit are familiar with the Coolidge format and its mission to remain accessible and persuasive for a broad, civic audience.

Judges
We need volunteer judges for our debate tournaments! We welcome citizen judges of all types, including parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, and other members of the community. Experience with debating or judging is not necessary. If you are interested, please take a look at our information for judges. On the morning of the tournament, we will hold a brief judge training session, where we will give you all the guidance you need for the day and will answer all of your questions. Register below to volunteer as a judge.

Questions
If you have any questions about the tournament, the Coolidge Cup, or about judging, please contact the Coolidge Foundation’s Director of Speech and Debate, Jonathan Peele.

 

Registration for Independent and Homeschool Competitors

Independent entries (students attending without the formal support of their school) and homeschool entries should register below using this form. If you need to make a change or cancel your registration, please reach out to jpeele@coolidgefoundation.org. For coaches of teams attending as a group officially representing your school, you must use this tournament’s page on Tabroom.com to add, change, or cancel your entries.

  • Help us get your name right. Put accented syllables in all-caps. (E.g., CAL-vin COO-lidge)
  • Enter (000) 000-0000 if no phone.
  • What high school do you attend? (Or if homeschooled, write Homeschool.)
  • What grade are you in for the 2025-2026 school year?
  • In what division of the tournament are you registering to compete? All students in grades 6-8 must enter the Middle School division. Only students in grades 9-12 who are in their first school year of any speech or debate competition may choose to enter the Novice division. Any student in grade 9-12 may choose to enter the Open/Varsity division, which will award qualification bids to the Coolidge Cup.
  • We're curious to know what your "home" league is, if you have one.
  • (If you do not have a debate coach, leave blank.)
  • (If you do not have a debate coach, leave blank.)

  • Parent / Guardian Information

    Please enter the following information about your parent or guardian.
  • Please enter the first phone number to call in the event of emergency.

  • Permissions

  • Click here to download our required Medical and Media release forms.

  • To complete your registration, you must upload these documents after they have been completed and signed. For students under 18 years of age, a parent or legal guardian signature is required on the Medical release and Media release forms. PDF submissions are preferred, but clear photographs of the entire page taken in such a manner that they resemble a scanned document are also permitted.

Registration for Judges

  • If you are affiliated with a school attending this tournament, please provide the name of that school. For example, the parent of a student competitor would list the name of the school their child attends. A recent alumni of an attending school would list their alma mater. If you do not have an affiliation with an attending school, write none.
  • Have you ever used Tabroom.com as part of judging at a speech and debate tournament before? If so, do you have a log in on that site?
  • Generally volunteer judges will be available for the entire tournament day (see the schedule posted on this tournament's information page on the Coolidge Foundation website). If you anticipate any limitations on your availability during the tournament, please describe those.
  • If there are any debaters at this tournament who you should not be assigned to judge, please list them here. For instance, if you have any children competing, or if there are students whom you coach.
  • Are there other important pieces of information that tournament officials should know that will help us run an educational, efficient, and fair competition? If your Tabroom.com account is associated with an email address other than the one provided above, provide your Tabroom.com email address here.