Coolidge Cup Online Qualifier

2023 — Online, VT/US

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Coolidge Cup Online Qualifier for Debate

There areseveral waysto earn an invitation to compete in debate at the Coolidge Cup. One way to try to earn an invitation is to compete in theCoolidge Cup Online Qualifier for Debate, which is an online tournament run by the Coolidge Foundation. The top 20 finishers at this tournament will earn an invitation to the 2023 Coolidge Cup. Details are below.

Date: Saturday, April 22, 2023 Time: Check-in time 9:30am ET Format: 1v1 Coolidge Debate Format Location: Online via Zoom Eligible: All U.S. high school students grade 9-12 Cost: Registration is free Register: Register via the form at the bottom of this page Deadline: Please register by Tuesday, April 18 at 11:59pm ET Judge Reqs: Each competitor please provide one judge Attire: Business Professional Schedule: Schedule (PDF) Rules: Coolidge Debate Rules (1v1 Format) Seminar: Pre-tournament seminar TBD Judge Training: We will have a virtual judge training session the week before the tournament. Details will be posted here. It will be recorded. If you cannot make it to the training, please watch the recording at some point before the tournament.

Resolution

The resolution for the tournament is,“Resolved: Among U.S. Presidents, Calvin Coolidge should be ranked in the top 10, not 24th.”(For reference, in themost recent ranking of presidents published by C-Span, President Coolidge was ranked 24th.)

The intent of this resolution is to have students debate the relative merits and achievements of U.S. Presidents, with a focus on President Coolidge’s place in history. While it may be necessary to briefly explain or defend your choice of criteria by which Presidential performance should be measured, do not let your round to be dominated by argumentation about the fine details of ranking methodologies. Judges will be instructed to reward historical arguments over arguments that overly depend on methodological critiques.

Research Brief

The research brief isavailable here (PDF). The purpose of the brief is to help you get started on your case preparation. 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. You are not limited to the arguments and sources in the brief.

Additionally, every student who registers for this tournament is eligible to receive a hardcover copy of the bookWhy Coolidge Matters, published by the National Notary Association. If you would like us to mail you a copy of this book, simply indicate so in the registration form.

Tournament Structure

One day; four rounds. Since the goal is to identify the top 20 students in order to award bids to the 2023 Coolidge Cup, there is no need to narrow the field all the way down to a single champion, we will not do outrounds.

Format and Style

Students will compete in the Coolidge 1v1 Debate Format. This is the same format that is used at the Coolidge Cup. If you are new to debating in this league, we highly recommend you review ourDebate Guide, which provides information about this particular format, style, and rules.

Bids to the Coolidge Cup

This tournament is a qualifier for the 2023 Coolidge Cup, which will be held July 2-4, 2023. The Coolidge Cup is an expenses-paid 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 $15,000 in scholarship prize money is awarded to the top finishers.Learn more about the Coolidge Cup.

Judges

To ensure that we have enough judges to run the tournament smoothly and efficiently, each competitor is asked to supply one judge (e.g., a parent, grandparent, teacher, coach, etc.). We also recruit some volunteer community judges, so the judge burden at our tournaments tends to be low (i.e., we probably will not need you to judge every single round). Experience with debating or judging is not necessary.Register to judge in this tournament.

Questions

If you have any questions about the tournament, the Coolidge Cup, or about judging, please contact Coolidge Foundation Debate Director Jared Rhoads (jrhoads@coolidgefoundation.org).