Allie LaForce Biography
Allie LaForce is an American journalist, model, and beauty pageant titleholder. She is well-known for her work as the lead sideline reporter covering the NBA on TNT, including the 2022 NBA Playoffs. She also covers March Madness and previously served as the lead sideline reporter for the SEC on CBS Sports Network. Allie won the title of Miss Teen Ohio and she is also the Co-Founder of Help Cure HD.
Allie LaForce Age
LaForce is 35 years old as of July 2024. She was born on December 11, 1988, in Vermilion, Ohio, United States.
Allie LaForce Height
She is 1.73 meters tall.
Allie LaForce Nationality
She is American.
Allie LaForce Education
LaForce attended and graduated from Ohio University, majoring in broadcast journalism. She graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2011. During her time at Ohio University, she also played on the women’s basketball team and participated in various extracurricular activities related to broadcasting and journalism.
Allie LaForce Parents
Allie LaForce was born to parents Lesa and Wade LaForce. Her mother, Lesa LaForce, was Miss Ohio USA in 1977 and later pursued a career as a teacher, while her father, Wade LaForce, is a successful businessman. Allie grew up in Vermilion, Ohio, and developed a love for sports from her family. Her father played college football, her mother was a tennis player and cheerleader at Kent State University, and her aunt, Connie, who lived with them growing up, was a varsity basketball coach. Since her parents traveled a lot for work, Connie helped raise them, taking them to the gym instead of a babysitter.
Allie’s father, Wade, played in two Stagg Bowls for the Wittenberg Tigers. Her brother, Jack, is currently a linebacker for the Mount Union Purple Raiders, and her sister, AuBree, was a four-sport standout at Vermilion High School. Currently, AuBree is a family medicine resident doctor in training at Cleveland Clinic Akron General.
Allie herself played five games her freshman year at Ohio University under head coach Semeka Randall as a guard on the Bobcats’ women’s basketball team.
Allie LaForce Husband
Allie is married to Joe Smith, a professional baseball pitcher. The two Ohio natives have been together since 2011, meeting while Joe was pitching for Cleveland and Allie was at Fox 8. The couple married in 2015 and they reside in Houston, Texas.
Allie LaForce Baby
LaForce and her husband Joe Smith welcomed their first child, a son named Jacob Michael Smith, on November 10, 2022, in Akron. They named him Jacob Michael Smith because the couple met at what was then Jacobs Field. LaForce’s younger sister, Dr. AuBree LaForce, who is a resident doctor in training at Cleveland Clinic Akron General Family Medicine, delivered the baby.
The couple knew they wanted to have a baby, but they didn’t want to potentially pass along a fatal disease to their child. They spent many years grappling with the possibility that Joe had a 50-50 chance of passing on a gene to his children for Huntington’s disease, a fatal genetic disorder. He lost his mother to the disease in 2020.
Joe’s mom, Lee, was diagnosed in 2012 with Huntington’s disease, an inherited disorder that causes nerve cells in parts of the brain to gradually break down and die. People living with the disease develop uncontrollable dance-like movements and abnormal body postures, as well as problems with behavior, emotion, thinking, and personality, according to the National Institutes of Health.
LaForce and Joe have founded The Help Cure HD Foundation, which aims to improve the quality of life for those affected by the disease. Joe has opted not to get tested for Huntington’s disease, but he and LaForce used in-vitro fertilization treatments and services through Cleveland Clinic to test their embryos. They first learned about the pre-implantation genetic testing, called PGT-IVF, to screen embryos for Huntington’s disease in 2015 and began researching it.
They started their own IVF journey in 2019 to have embryos without the gene, “therefore guaranteeing that our children wouldn’t have it and also their children, and it’s eliminated from the family line forever now,” LaForce said. Their foundation has awarded more than 136 grants to other couples for PGT-IVF procedures and testing. One round of IVF treatments, testing, egg retrieval, and implantation can cost as much as $37,000, LaForce said. The couple went through two rounds. Even though their journey to parenthood was delayed by moves and a miscarriage in late 2021, they finally became parents in November 2022.
Allie LaForce TNT
Allie LaForce is the lead sideline reporter for NBA games on TNT, including coverage of the 2022 NBA Playoffs. She also covers March Madness and previously served as the lead sideline reporter for the SEC on CBS Sports Network. LaForce attributes much of her success in broadcasting to her unique upbringing.
LaForce’s parents instilled in her the philosophy of ‘try everything once.’ During her childhood, she engaged in a variety of activities including basketball, volleyball, softball, track, and even pageants. In 2005, she was crowned both Miss Ohio Teen USA and Miss Teen USA.
LaForce’s ambition was to participate in college sports, which became a reality when she joined the women’s basketball team at Ohio University. Playing college basketball, she believes, significantly influenced her and her broadcasting career.
While at college, LaForce traveled to cover football and basketball games and also provided play-by-play commentary on the radio. Additionally, she worked at the local television station, WOUB-TV, as an anchor, reporter, and producer.
After graduating, she became a sports anchor and reporter for Cleveland’s FOX affiliate, WJW Channel 8, and worked as a sideline reporter for Sportstime Ohio. LaForce’s career breakthrough occurred when she was appointed as the primary sideline reporter for the SEC on CBS.
Since working for TNT, LaForce has covered NBA All-Stars, worked playoff games, and even interviewed stars from LeBron James to Chris Paul. However, her biggest accomplishment to date is starting her foundation Help Cure HD with her husband — MLB pitcher Joe Smith.
Help Cure HD was inspired by Lee Smith, Joe’s mother, who was diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease in 2012. The organization aims to improve the quality of life for those affected by Huntington’s Disease by providing financial, emotional, and mental support while searching for a cure. Huntington’s Disease is a hereditary brain disorder that causes a deterioration in nerve cells. Over 30,000 people in the United States suffer from the disease, but there is no cure. Currently, there is a 50/50 chance a child could inherit the HD gene if a parent has it.
According to LaForce, Help Cure HD eradicates the deadly disease from a family line forever by preventing the gene from being passed on through a procedure known as PGT-IVF. Through the procedure, embryos without the HD gene can be implanted, thereby ending the disease in the family line. So far, LaForce and Smith have funded 70 families to undergo PGT-IVF through hard work and fundraising.
Allie LaForce Salary
LaForce’s salary is reported to be approximately $60,000 annually.
Allie LaForce Net Worth
LaForce’s net worth is estimated to be around $3 million. This estimation includes her earnings from her career as a sports reporter and anchor, as well as any endorsements and other ventures.
