Alexandra Leigh LaForce (born December 11, 1988) is an American journalist, model, and beauty pageant titleholder. She is a reporter for

Turner Sports Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet, and TruTV. ...

, covering the ''

NBA on TNT ''NBA on TNT'' is a branding used for broadcasts of the National Basketball Association (NBA) games, produced by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, the sports division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Sports subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery and tel ...

''. She was previously the lead reporter for SEC college football games, a courtside reporter for

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

games, and the host of ''We Need to Talk'' on the

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known a ...

. LaForce also worked as a broadcast sports anchor and reporter for the Cleveland, Ohio,

FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

affiliate WJW. She won a 2011 Emmy award for anchoring FOX 8's '' Friday Night Touchdown'' high school football show. She was

Miss Teen USA Miss Teen USA is a beauty pageant formerly run, since 1983, by the Miss Universe Organization for girls aged 14–19. Unlike its sister pageants Miss Universe, which currently broadcasts on Fox and Miss USA, this pageant is webcast on the M ...

in 2005, and played college basketball at

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subseq ...

Early life and education

LaForce is from

Vermilion, Ohio Vermilion is a city in Erie and Lorain counties in the U.S. state of Ohio, on Lake Erie. The population was 10,659 at the 2020 census. Located about 35 miles west of Cleveland and 17 miles east of Sandusky, it is part of the Cleveland metr ...

. She attended

and played five games her freshman year under head coach

Semeka Randall Semeka Chantay Randall-Lay (born February 7, 1979, in Cleveland, Ohio) is the current head coach for the Winthrop Eagles women's basketball team. She is also a former collegiate and professional basketball player. She was hired as recruiting coor ...

as a guard on the

Bobcats The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUC ...

' women's basketball team.

Career

Pageantry

LaForce began her career in pageantry after winning the

Miss Ohio Teen USA The Miss Ohio Teen USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Ohio in the Miss Teen USA pageant and the name of the title held by that winner. Most recently the pageant has been held in Springfield, ...

2005 title in September 2004, in her first attempt at the title. She went on to represent Ohio in the Miss Teen USA 2005 pageant held in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

, on August 8, 2005. LaForce competed in the evening gown, swimsuit and final interview competitions, and was crowned Miss Teen USA 2005 by her predecessor Shelley Hennig, Miss Teen USA 2004 from

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. Her mother Lesa LaForce (née Rummell) was

Miss Ohio USA The Miss Ohio USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Ohio in the Miss USA pageant, and the name of the title held by that winner. It has previously been known as Miss Ohio Universe. It is produced by Proc ...

1977. Her winnings included a one-year modeling contract with Trump Modeling Management and a scholarship to the

School for Film and Television The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts (NYCDA) is a private acting college in New York City. Originally conceived for the purpose of training actors for film and television acting, in 2009 the conservatory gained accreditation to offer Assoc ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. She also earned a guest appearance in the NBC

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

Passions ''Passions'' is an American television soap opera that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1999, to September 7, 2007, and on DirecTV's The 101 Network from September 17, 2007, to August 7, 2008. Created by screenwriter James E. Reilly and ...

''. LaForce made appearances throughout the United States, promoting causes such as drug and alcohol awareness, as well as continuing to attend high school in Ohio.

Sportscasting

Bradley Beal, Allie LaForce (34162450551)

LaForce worked as a sideline reporter for

Sportstime Ohio Bally Sports Great Lakes is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel, which is a sister network to Bally Sports Ohio, broadcasts statewide coverage of professiona ...

during the 2010

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

's football season, the 2011 MAC men's basketball tournament, and the 2011

OHSAA The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) is the governing body of athletic programs for junior and senior high schools in the state of Ohio. The OHSAA governs eligibility of student athletes, resolves disputes, organizes levels of compe ...

basketball championships. After college, she signed with Cleveland's

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

affiliate, WJW channel 8, as a sports anchor and reporter. In April 2014, it was announced that LaForce would replace

Tracy Wolfson Tracy Wolfson (born March 17, 1975) is an American sportscaster for CBS Sports. She is the lead sideline reporter for the NFL on CBS. Early life Wolfson grew up in Congers, New York, and attended Clarkstown High School North, in the New York C ...

as the sideline reporter for the '' SEC on CBS''. LaForce worked as a sideline reporter for

NBA TV NBA TV is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit. Dedicated to basketball, the network features exhibition, regula ...

during the NBA Summer League in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. In June 2018, it was reported that LaForce would be leaving CBS Sports after the two sides could not come to terms on a new deal. LaForce still makes occasional appearances on CBS, due to her March Madness reporting role. LaForce later signed a deal with

to continue her role as a sideline reporter for the

and the NCAA Tournament. In 2022, LaForce works as a field-level reporter for ''MLB on TBS Tuesday Night''.

Personal life

LaForce is married to

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

relief pitcher Joe Smith.

References

External links

*
Allie LaForce's Ohio Women's Basketball Profile

Allie LaForce Walks Red Carpet at Miss USA 2014
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laforce, Allie Living people 1988 births American beauty pageant winners American sports journalists Beauty pageant contestants from Ohio College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers 2005 beauty pageant contestants 21st-century Miss Teen USA delegates Miss Teen USA winners National Football League announcers Ohio Bobcats women's basketball players People from Vermilion, Ohio National Basketball Association broadcasters High school basketball announcers in the United States Baseball players' wives and girlfriends