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The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation is pleased to announce 2026 Coolidge Mid-Atlantic League Tournament #2. This one-day speech and debate tournament will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at Thales Academy Holly Springs in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The tournament is part of the Coolidge Mid-Atlantic League at the Luddy Schools and welcomes students in grades 6-12 from any school, as well as homeschool and independent competitors. The tournament will offer Coolidge 2v2 Debate and Declamation.

Independent and homeschool competitors should register through the Coolidge Foundation tournament page. Information and registration for volunteer judges are also available there.

Tournament Overview
Date: Saturday, November 7, 2026
Debate Format: 2v2 Coolidge debate format
Location: Thales Academy Holly Springs, 11244 Holly Springs New Hill Road, Holly Springs, North Carolina 27540
Eligibility: Students enrolled in grades 6-12
Cost: None, including lunch for competitors and judges
Deadline: Registration closes at 11:59 PM EDT on Thursday, October 29, 2026
Debate Topic: Resolved: Wealth taxes do more harm than good.
Judges: Schools, clubs, and independent students are not required to provide judges, but we strongly encourage entrants to recruit volunteer judges
Attire: Business professional

About the Mid-Atlantic League
The Coolidge Mid-Atlantic League at the Luddy Schools is a regional speech and debate league serving North Carolina and the broader Mid-Atlantic region. It is a joint project of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and the schools founded by Robert L. Luddy, including the Thales Academies, Franklin Academy, and St. Thomas More Academy.

League tournaments welcome students in grades 6-12 from any school willing to travel to them, as well as homeschool students and independent entries. There is no league membership requirement, and participation is free.

Tournament Structure
The tournament will begin with a morning seminar on the debate topic led by a subject matter expert. The seminar is designed to give competitors additional background and context before competition begins. A detailed tournament schedule, including check-in, seminar, round, lunch, and awards times, will be posted before the tournament.

All debate teams will compete in four rounds throughout the day and should prepare to argue both sides of the resolution. Teams will be paired randomly for round one and paired high-low within brackets thereafter. Beginning in round two, this means teams will generally debate an opponent with the same win-loss record.

Competitors should find a debate partner in advance and register as a two-person team. Students who do not have a partner may register as a solo or "maverick" entry. Maverick entries are discouraged but permitted and may be paired with another maverick competitor at the discretion of tournament officials. Maverick entries must provide an adult judge.

The tournament will conclude with an awards ceremony recognizing the top-performing teams and individual speakers in each debate division.

Debate Topic
The resolution for the tournament is “Resolved: Wealth taxes do more harm than good.”

The Coolidge Foundation will publish a research brief on the resolution to provide competitors with background information, arguments, evidence, and sources to begin their preparation. Debaters may use the brief as a starting point and are encouraged to conduct additional research and develop their own cases and evidence.

Declamation
In addition to Coolidge 2v2 Debate, Tournament #2 will offer a Declamation event. Declamation gives students an opportunity to deliver a previously published speech and compete on the basis of interpretation, delivery, and effective communication. Competitors should review the Coolidge Declamation page for information about the event format, rules, and judging standards. For this tournament, competitors should prepare the selections in the Fall 2026 Declamation Packet.

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

Middle School: All students in grades 6-8 must enter the Middle School division. Only students in grades 6-8 may compete in this division.

High School Novice: High school students with no experience or minimal experience may elect to participate in the Novice division. A novice is defined as a high school debater in the first year of any speech and debate competition.

High School Open/Varsity: High school students with prior debate experience, whether in Coolidge Debate or another league, should participate in the Open/Varsity division. Any student in grades 9-12 may elect to enter the Open/Varsity division. Teams must compete in the division of their most experienced partner. For example, a team consisting of one novice debater and one varsity debater must compete in the Open/Varsity division.

Format and Style
Debaters will compete in the Coolidge 2v2 debate format. Those new to Coolidge Debate are strongly encouraged to review our debate education resources, which explain the format, style, and rules.

Judges
We need volunteer judges to make Coolidge Mid-Atlantic League tournaments possible. Parents, grandparents, adult family members, teachers, coaches, and other members of the community are welcome to serve as citizen judges. Prior debate or judging experience is not necessary. Consistent with the mission of Coolidge Debate, judges should emphasize clear, logical, evidence-based arguments intended to persuade a broad civic audience.

Those interested in volunteering are encouraged to review our information for judges. A brief judge training session will be held on the morning of the tournament to explain the Coolidge format, tournament procedures, and judging expectations and to answer questions. With the rarest of exceptions, the Coolidge Foundation does not hire judges for pay.

Registration
Schools and clubs attending as teams should register their competitors directly through this Tabroom.com tournament.

Independent competitors, homeschool competitors, and volunteer judges should use the registration forms on the Coolidge Foundation Tournament #2 page.

Questions
For questions about the tournament, the Mid-Atlantic League, registration, judging, or Declamation, contact Jonathan Peele, Coolidge Foundation Director of Speech and Debate.