The Lower Columbia College Fighting Smelt are proud to invite you and your forensics program to attend the 54^th Annual Michael Dugaw Smelt Classic. This tournament will serve as the fourth and final designated tournament for the Northwest Forensics Conference 2026-2027 competition season.

 

This year’s tournament to be an in-person event, held on our beautiful campus in Longview, WA. We will be offering all eleven AFA speech events, as well as the supplemental event Editorial Commentary. We will also offer at least IPDA and BP debate, and are willing to offer other formats if there is sufficient community interest and support with tabulation.

 

Novice, Junior, and Open divisions will all be available in all events at the time of registration. Tournament staff reserves the right to collapse divisions based on the distribution of entries and the availability of rooms and judges. In collapsed events, we will celebrate the successes of novice and junior participants by acknowledging top competitors at our awards ceremony.

 

The very first Smelt Classic forensics tournament was hosted by the late Mike Dugaw during the 1973-1974 season. Though the forensics landscape has changed immensely since the 1970s, this tournament has remained a constant. It is always an honor and a privilege to host the Smelt Classic. We hope that this year’s edition will be a beautiful celebration of the Dugaw legacy in our forensics community.

 

Please let me know if you have questions or if I can provide any additional information. We look forward to hosting you in February 2027!

 

 

Sincerely,

Alex Brehm                                                                                        

Director of Forensics                                                                   

Lower Columbia College                           

abrehm@lowercolumbia.edu