Coolidge North Carolina Open

The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation is proud to announce its annual Coolidge North Carolina Open, a one-day debate tournament that will be held on Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Holly Springs.

Roberto Salinas León Topic Seminar
One of the hallmarks of Coolidge Debate is the quality of our speakers and our commitment to providing opportunities for students to learn from public policy thought leaders. We are pleased to announce that Dr. Roberto Salinas León, President of the Mexico Business Forum and Director of the Center for Latin America of Atlas Network, will deliver a seminar on tariffs and the trade relationship between the United States and Mexico to begin the Coolidge Texas Open! Dr. Salinas León will explain both sides of our resolution and take questions from students.

Overview of the Tournament
Date: Saturday, April 26, 2025.
Times: A detailed schedule will be posted here soon. Check in at 8:30 AM, the morning seminar begins at 8:45 AM, and awards conclude by 4:00 PM.
Format: 2v2 Coolidge debate format.
Location: Thales Academy Holly Springs, 11244 Holly Springs New Hill Road, Holly Springs, NC, 27540.
Eligibility: All students currently enrolled in grades 6-12.
Cost: Free with lunch provided.
Registration: Registration closes Tuesday, April 22, at 11:59 PM EDT. 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 both sides of “Resolved: On balance, increasing tariffs on Mexico benefits the United States’ economy.” The Foundation has prepared a research brief on this topic to aid in your preparation. You are not limited to the arguments or evidence in the brief. In fact, you are welcome and encouraged to use the brief as a starting point and build upon it by doing your own additional research and case writing.

Tournament Structure
The tournament will have three divisions: middle school, high school novice, and high school varsity/open. High school teams with no experience or minimal experience may elect to participate in the novice division. (We define a novice as a debater who has participated in no more than two tournaments in his or her lifetime.) Teams with experience debating in either the Coolidge Debate League or other leagues should participate in the varsity division.

Participants will begin Saturday with a topic seminar from a subject matter expert with lunch and four rounds of competition for all competitors to follow. 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 teams (eight students assuming no mavericks qualify) in the open/varsity division will each receive an invitation to the 2025 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, 2025. Learn more about the Coolidge Cup.

Format and Style
Students will compete in the Coolidge 2v2 debate format. 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.

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

Students attending independently (not as part of a school-approved trip or group) and homeschool competitors should register using the form below. Debaters attending as part of a school-approved team should be registered as a group by their coach for this tournament on Tabroom.com, which is open now.

  • For high school teams, if neither student on the team has competed in more than two debate tournaments before (in either the Coolidge Debate League or other leagues), then that team may participate in the novice division. Teams whose members have more experience should participate in the varsity division.
  • Click here to download our required Medical and Media release forms.

  • Please complete the form (see link above) and upload it.

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

  • Please complete the form (see link above) and upload it.

 


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 so, please share those with us!