Yvette Holt has played numerous sports through Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association ( CMSA ) over the past 20 years, particularly softball, basketball and flag football. She also has dabbled in dodgeball, darts and a pool league.
Born and raised in Chicago, Holt was a three-sport athlete ( tennis, basketball and softball ) in high school who continued with basketball and softball at Chicago State University.
Holt, though, has never played tackle football, or even put on all the gear and gone toe to toe with someone, though that's admittedly on her bucket-list. She is, mind you, married to Linda Bache, a former standout player and current owner of the Chicago Force, a women's tackle football team that annually is one of the best in the nation.
Holt runs the team's audio/video production and is the game-day DJ, thus, when I Gotta Feeling from the Black Eyed Peas is blaring over the speakers with minutes left to play in a Force home game, and the win is apparent, it was Holt who hit 'Play.'
For Force road games, Holt shoots sideline video footage as she is in charge of film and production of Force game highlights and team videos.
Holt toyed with the idea of playing, but that was years ago.
"Linda said I wouldn't like getting hit. She also confessed she wouldn't want to see me get hit," Holt said. "If you had asked me [about playing] 10 years ago, and after seeing the passion in our players, I probably would have said, yes."
Holt was cheering as loud as anyone in 2013 when the Force won its lone national championship. Holt said the title was a mix of "joy, relief and happinessfor Linda, the players, the coaches and everyone who worked so hard."
Holt handles all of the team-related videos through Holt in the House Productions, a role she said "is fun."
"I don't claim to have any great talent, just the patience to put clips together into something people may enjoy watching," she said. "Anyone can make decent videos these days with iMovie and the like. I take some of the highlights, the great plays from games, set them to music, add a bit of slo-mo, titles … and voil�!
"One of my favorite series that I started producing in 2008 for the Force is called Under the Helmet. At the end of every year, I interview about 10 players, I ask them all the same questions, random questions, some football-related, some totally arbitrary. I take the best, worst and weirdest responses and edit them all together. Over the years the questions have gotten crazier."
THE STATS
Age: "Really?"
Relationship status: Holt married Linda Bache in New York. "We were impatient [waiting for Illinois to pass same-sex: marriage legislation] and [it was] an excuse to visit New York for the weekend." They celebrate 12 years together next June.
Job title: Senior project manager for an IT infrastructure company.
Hobbies: Videography, gardening, woodworking, playing drums and sports
Five people ( living or dead ) who you'd like to invite to dinner: "Initially I thought I should say someone historically profound, [such as] Martin Luther King [or] Gandhi, but the truth is, I'd love to have dinner with my mother, [who] passed in 2010, and my grandparents from both sides; I never had a chance to talk with them or have any memories of them."