High-Level Coaching from a National Finalist Across 9 Events

Whether you're aiming for your first break or preparing for finals at NITOC, Rachel Shipley offers high-impact coaching designed to sharpen your skills, boost your confidence, and elevate your performance across both debate and speech events. A 2025 NITOC Team Policy Finalist with experience in nine competitive events and nearly 150 tournaments, Rachel brings deep competitive insight and proven success to every session.

What You’ll Get:

• Targeted, Individualized Feedback: Each session is customized to meet your specific goals—whether that’s strengthening argumentation, tightening delivery, or perfecting event strategy.
• Wide-Ranging Expertise: Rachel coaches Team Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, Parli, Apologetics, Mars Hill, Extemp, Impromptu, Original Oratory, and Slam Poetry.
• Round-Winning Strategy: Learn how to think critically, prep efficiently, and execute with clarity under pressure.
• National-Level Preparation: With extensive experience at the top levels of competition, Rachel understands what it takes to win—and how to get you there.

From sharpening cases to improving speech delivery, Rachel's coaching is designed to help you compete at your highest level from local prelims to the national stage.

About Rachel

I was just six years old when I was introduced to the world of speech and debate. For six years, I followed my older siblings around and watched as many debate rounds as I could. After I turned 12, I spent the next six years competing in Stoa tournaments. In total, I’ve attended close to 150 Stoa tournaments and competed in nine events: Team Policy Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Parliamentary Debate, Apologetics, Mars Hill, Extemporaneous, Impromptu, Original Oratory, and Slam Poetry.

Throughout my competition years, I worked incredibly hard, and God blessed my efforts in amazing ways. I won Team Policy Debate 10 times, Parliamentary Debate 5 times, and each of my speech events at least twice. In my senior year, I won the Tournament Champion award seven times and finished the season as a National Finalist in Team Policy Debate, Apologetics, Extemporaneous, and Impromptu.

After twelve years, I’m still not done with the world of speech and debate! Now, as a coach, I want to help train up future generations of speech and debaters in the art of communication. Over my years of competition, I learned a great deal about how to be not only a skilled debater, but also an honorable competitor. It's now my goal to share that experience with others.

I don’t just want to be your coach—I want to be your mentor. I believe in tailoring my coaching to each individual student, working with their unique strengths and weaknesses. My philosophy is to meet students where they are and to encourage and equip them to become the best debaters they can possibly be. My hope and prayer is that God would be glorified through all that I do and that I would always point others to Him.