About our speech and debate coaches/mentors and Team Members:
Our philosophy behind our coaching is a little unique. We want to come along side you or your student, or even as you a parent or coach! This more than a tour guide, this becomes a relationship. Our goals, are your goals…
Are you wanting to take your speech to the next level? Are you looking to brain storm? Need help coming up with ideas? We can help guide you in picking your piece or provide feedback on your platform. We can help work choreography or characterization in your Interp… we can do it all! But most importantly, we do it with you!
Check out our awesome group of coaches that would love to help! Most coaching sessions last approximately an hour. Due to Heather Neumann’s high demand, her sessions are approximately 50 minutes.
Please take the time to read our coaches bios. When you contact us for coaching, we will help you find the right fit…
Coaches
 | Heather Neumann Heather Neumann is the founder of Lasting Impact! She empowers her clients to find their inner voice through public speaking. Heather says, "There is a power your voice has. It has the ability to make a lasting impact. All you have to do is use it." In addition to coaching Speech and Debate students across the country, she is also a speaker coach for TedX. Heather has been blessed to have coached thousands of students, including National Championship speakers. |
 | Kristi Eskelund Kristi Eskelund’s background is first and foremost that of a teacher, with a long background in speech, debate, and drama. Kristi competed as a youth in what was then the National Forensics League. She has been a high school English and Speech teacher for over 30 years, teaching in public schools, college extension courses, and home school classes. She has seen her four oldest children through to adulthood, and she currently teaches a home school literature course and works as a substitute teacher in rural North Carolina public schools.On the personal side, Kristi is married to Retired USMC Colonel Dave Eskelund, and after moving with the Marine Corps for 30 years, Kristi is glad to be settled on a 25-acre farm where she and the Colonel raise sheep, chickens, bees, and lots of garden things. |
 | Ethan Tong Ethan Tong ('19 NCFCA alumnus) has coached for over five years after a successful high school career that included fifteen top-3 placements and two national oral advocate awards. He went on to garner an outstanding attorney award and two outstanding witness awards in College Mock Trial. Now, he coaches LD, TP, and Moot. His coaching philosophy emphasizes that persuasion is about teaching judges, not just sounding good to your peers. His private students routinely place at the national level, including nearly sweeping the 7 Oral Advocate awards available at Nationals last year. One of his teams made the final round. |
 | Hillary Kolssak Hillary Kolssak has been coaching speech and debate for over a decade. She teaches Lincoln Douglas Debate and at EverReady Speech and Debate Club in Chicago. She also leads the advanced speech class. Over the last ten years she has taught hundreds of students at camps, club meetings and through private coaching. Many of her students have earned top awards at qualifying and national tournaments. She has also coached students for other speech and debate events like the Coolidge Cup, Reagan debate and various essay contents. She recently completed the Colson Fellow Program, where she learned how to teach others to incorporate a Biblical worldview into activities like speech and debate. She is the co-author of Elements of LD, the 2025-2026 Lincoln-Douglas guidebook. She is actively involved in coaching students on a weekly basis and is available for private coaching in speech and Lincoln Douglas debate. |
 | Roman Hogancamp Roman Hogancamp will be attending Patrick Henry College this fall, majoring in Strategic Intelligence with an emphasis in Economics. During his senior year, Roman qualified for the NCFCA National Championship in Team Policy Debate, Moot Court, and seven speeches, including: Apologetics, Biblical Thematic, Digital Presentation, Extemporaneous, Impromptu, Informative and Persuasive. Qualifying for the NCFCA National Tournament throughout high school, Roman has earned such distinctions as 2024 Extemporaneous National Champion, 2nd place in Informative Speaking, 8th in Humorous, 12th in Digital Presentation, and 21st in Team Policy Debate. Roman has also served, first as a speech and debate mentor, and then as a Team Policy Coach.Outside of speech and debate, Roman teaches K-4th grade Sunday School at his local church, is employed as a Paintball referee, plays pickleball, and builds and plays guitars—electric guitar being his favorite. Daniel 12:3 proclaims, “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” That is Roman’s prayer, to allow God to shine brightly through him, that he may lead many to righteousness. |
 | Kaleb Koch Kaleb Koch is an NCFCA alumnus, competing from 2017-2022. He qualified to nationals in every event he competed in throughout his last two years of competition, placing first in Apologetics and Team Policy debate at regionals his final season. He has continued to compete in college forensics, and in both years set records for his school in national placements, receiving gold awards in policy debate, impromptu, and extemp. Kaleb has coached multiple debate camps, as well as done personal coaching for national finalists. Kaleb has a passion for debate and is excited to pass on his knowledge to the next generation of competitors. |
 | Seth Margolis After 5 years of speech and debate with NCFCA, Seth finished as a top ten debater his senior year at Nationals.During his 2 years at Harper College, he earned multiple forensics awards, placing gold in IPDA and silver in Parliamentary Debate at nationals while concurrently coaching NCFCA debate students since graduating. This year, while competing for Grand Canyon University, he finished in first place in IPDA debate and made semi finals in Impromptu at the NCCFI National Championship and took home gold in the online National IPDA Championship, along with multiple awards throughout the year, completing his 3rd college forensics season with a record setting finish for the GCU team. Seth is passionate about debate and about teaching debaters how to communicate in the real world to not just win arguments, but effectively and respectfully explain their position. Seth plans to complete his BA in Communications next year and continue studying for his M.Ed in Post Secondary Education. |
 | Nathanael Kolssak Nathanael Kolssak is an NCFCA alum who competed for seven years in nearly every speech category and three forms of debate. Having achieved nationally ranked status in speech and debate, Nathanael has continued his journey at Cedarville University, where he is currently pursuing a degree in communication and entrepreneurship. Going beyond his academic pursuits, Nathanael has found fulfillment in coaching high school speech and debate. Nathanael's approach to debate is unique, as he is a staunch advocate for developing narratives that captivate judges and create a winning storyline. |
 | Honor (Persing) Hoffmann Honor (Persing) Hoffmann competed in NCFCA for 7 years, from 2015-2022. During her years of competition she made lots of new friends, gained awareness and confidence, qualified to Nationals in multiple categories, and - most importantly - met her now-husband. Honor coached her club in both team policy and speech, and loves helping students connect with their judges and become genuine and thoughtful communicators. She loves to see students become passionate about the things that matter. Honor's own passion will always be limited prep, although Team Policy also has a special place in her heart. If you want to really get her going, ask her why everyone should try extemp. Honor was part of the Lasting Impact! Team Policy Sourcebook Team for the 2022-23 Season."I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun - not because I can see it, but because by it I can see everything else." -C.S. Lewis |
 | Hannah Cavanaugh Hannah Cavanaugh is an NCFCA alumna who competed in the NCFCA for 6 years and hascontinued to compete in forensics throughout college. Hannah is currently a junior at Regent University studying Government with a focus on American Government and Politics. During her NCFCA career, she won tournaments at both the national and regional levels in Extemporaneous, Apologetics, Impromptu, Informative, Digital Presentation, Lincoln-Douglas Speaker, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, and Moot Court. In addition to earning distinction at qualifying tournaments, she was the 2022 National Champion in Lincoln-Douglas Debate Speaking, the 2nd place Extemporaneous speaker at the 2023 National Championship, and the 2023 National Champion in Moot Court. Since graduating, Hannah has begun coaching for the NCFCA, STOA, NSDA, and the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation’s debate league. She specializes in limited prep, platforms, and debate. Her private students have excelled at both the regional and national levels, winning qualifying tournaments and most recently including the 1st and 2nd place Oral Advocates at the 2024 National Championship. |
 | Emalyn (Sharp) George Emalyn has a BA in English and Liberal Arts, and is passionate about sharing a love for sound writing. She competed in the NCFCA for four years from 2017-2020. During that time, she competed in 11 different speech categories, and she was honored to compete at the National Championship each year. Additionally, she competed in Lincoln Douglas for one year, and Team Policy for three. She prefers to coach Team Policy and Platform speaking, encouraging students to build a strong, well-prepared base from which to work. |
 | Charis Baker After falling in love with debate at the first tournament she watched, Charis competed in Stoa for five years. During that time, she participated in every speech and debate event that Stoa offered, including multiple wildcards. She broke to speech finals in a variety of events including Apologetics, Extemporaneous, Expository, Interp in a Box, Impromptu, Open Interpretation, and Oratory Analysis, finishing her career by competing in Extemporaneous finals at the national tournament. During her senior year, Charis placed in the top two Lincoln Douglas Speakers at seven tournaments, eventually going on to become Lincoln Douglas Speaker season-long champion and Speaker Champion at nationals. Charis won Lincoln Douglas and Parliamentary Debate finals at numerous tournaments during her career. When she is not coaching, researching, or writing, Charis enjoys practicing flute, piano, and voice, growing in her graphic design abilities, pursuing internship opportunities, and working as a construction estimator. |
 | Caleb McClure Caleb competed in NCFCA for 6 years (2019-2025), participating in LD, TP, Moot Court, Extemporaneous, Duo, Apologetics, Persuasive, and Impromptu. Throughout his career, Caleb won multiple national and regional tournaments in LD debate and had many top 5 placings in speech categories. His sophomore year, he was the Regional Champion in LD, and finished in 3rd place in Persuasive at Nationals, as well as being a SemiFinalist in extemporaneous. His junior year, Caleb won the National Championship in LD debate, and he is excited to begin coaching for Lasting Impact. |
 | Gabriel Zylstra Gabriel is an NCFCA alumnus who competed for 6 years and a current member of the Hillsdale College Mock trial team. During his time in NCFCA, Gabriel qualified to nationals in several speech events, including Original Interpretation, Humorous, ADS, Extemporaneous, informative, persuasive, biblical thematic and digital presentation. At the national championship, he earned first place in both Lincoln-Douglass value debate and Moot Court. |
Team Members
 | Lainey Hoyt Lainey is a homeschool graduate from the lovely coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, passionate about using the gifts God has given her to bless others. Alaina also works at a locally owned business as a cashier. She spends her time gardening, designing, reading, and making stickers for her small business. She has a bubbly personality and loves to laugh and enjoys the company of her friends and family! |
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