The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation is proud to announce the second annual Coolidge Illinois Open. This one-day debate tournament will be held on Saturday, October 18, 2025, at Willows Academy in Des Plaines, Illinois. We are excited to bring a Coolidge Cup qualifying tournament to the Chicagoland area again!

Overview of the Tournament
Date: Saturday, October 18, 2025.
Times: A detailed schedule is now available here. Students should arrive and gather in the cafeteria by 8:30 AM. All four rounds and awards are scheduled to conclude by 6:30 PM.
Format: 1v1 Coolidge debate format.
Location: Willows Academy, 1015 Rose Avenue, Des Plaines, Illinois, 60016.
Eligibility: All high school students (currently enrolled in grades 9-12).
Cost: Free, including lunch for all debaters and judges.
Registration: Registration closes Tuesday, October 14, at 11:59 PM CDT. This tournament has a maximum capacity of 64 debaters, and 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 are not required 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: The United States federal government should abolish its Department of Education. 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
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 here to volunteer as a judge or have your school's coach enter you on this site as part of your official entry.

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.