{"id":21925,"date":"2025-11-13T16:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T21:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=21925"},"modified":"2025-11-13T16:13:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T21:13:22","slug":"still-in-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/still-in-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Still in the Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s been a few years since Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick ’02 came out of her self-described “reality-show retirement.” She was in her early 40s when she got a call from the producers of \u201cSnake in the Grass,\u201d a new reality TV series that debuted on the USA Network in 2023. It had been more than a decade since the last of her three appearances on \u201cSurvivor,\u201d and with her kids in school and her husband retired at home, she finally had the flexibility to say yes. It was only a three-day commitment. She had no idea it would bring her all the way back into the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometime in early 2026, LaGrossa will appear alongside 23 other \u201cSurvivor\u201d alu ni when the iconic series debuts its highly anticipated 50th season. It\u2019s a fitting return for the former Hawks lacrosse standout, who has forged an on-and-off reality TV career from an abundant natural reserve of competitiveness, toughness, and willingness to embrace a challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those traits were honed during a blue-collar upbringing in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where LaGrossa grew up the youngest of five siblings. \u201cWith four older brothers,\u201d she says with pride, \u201cI\u2019ve always been a fighter, and I have very thick skin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long before her reality show days, those qualities served her well as an athlete. She was recruited to Temple for lacrosse and started for the Owls as a freshman but eventually decided the Philadelphia school wasn\u2019t the right fit. Looking for a transfer destination, the girl who had spent summers growing up on the Jersey shore found her home in West Long Branch. Among her new Monmouth teammates was Rebekah \u201cBeka\u201d Immit \u201902, who will never forget her first impression of LaGrossa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur first preseason event was a timed mile,\u201d Immit recalls. \u201cShe was rooming with the track and field girls, and she rolls up in this full-body spandex outfit. In true Steph fashion, she committed to it\u2014she joked with us about it, she was confident, and of course she ran a great time. You knew right away she was just unstoppable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, LaGrossa calls her decision to transfer \u201cthe best move I ever made.\u201d She would go on to captain the Hawks lacrosse team before graduating in 2002, leaving with a double major in marketing and management and a crew of lifelong friends. (She and a half dozen or so of her former teammates maintain an active group text.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pharmaceutical sales proved a good fit, but by 2004, with some money saved and a condo in Toms River, the lure of adventure led her to apply for a slot on \u201cSurvivor.\u201d \u201cI was always a huge fan,\u201d she says of the show. \u201cI remember watching and thinking, \u2018I\u2019m not a fisherman, I don\u2019t go camping, but between my competitiveness and the social aspect of the game, I know I could kill it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was one of 20 competitors (out of roughly 800 applicants) to earn a spot on \u201cSurvivor: Palau,\u201d the show\u2019s 10th season, which was filmed in late 2004 and aired in the spring of 2005. She resigned from her job, flew to the Micronesian island for filming, and made it to the show\u2019s final seven; more important, she made an impression. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Stephenie

Stephenie and Kyle Kendrick with their children\u2014Sophie, 14; Kyle Jr., 12; and Sloane, 7\u2014and their Frenchie, Kona, and bulldog, Bam Bam.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

She had just finished training for a new sales job a few months later when she got the call asking if she\u2019d be interested in returning for the next season, set in Guatemala. In a move that she jokes got her \u201cbanned for life from the pharmaceutical industry,\u201d she said yes, and she proved adept enough at the show\u2019s array of schemes, alliances, and mental and physical challenges to finish as Season 11 runner-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew that she was going to attack that game with the same fierceness that made her a successful Division I athlete,\u201d Immit says. \u201cIt was a venue that really showcased her stamina and athleticism, but she\u2019s also a really great communicator, and I think she reads a room really well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reality TV fame led to more opportunities in the spotlight: modeling and event hosting, commercials, even a couple of soap opera cameos. But celebrity, LaGrossa insists, \u201cwas never why I did \u2018Survivor,\u201d\u2019 even though she wasn\u2019t sure what might come next. After the end of LaGrossa\u2019s brief marriage to her longtime boyfriend, one of her brothers offered something that felt like a fresh start: partnering with him to buy a small restaurant and lounge in Philadelphia, in which she invested some of her \u201cSurvivor\u201d winnings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They owned the place for nearly seven years. \u201cIt was a hole-in-the-wall spot with good food and good music,\u201d she says, and among the regulars were players from Philly sports teams\u2014including a young Phillies pitcher named Kyle Kendrick, who quickly made it known he was smitten with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was reluctant at first\u2014\u201cI was 27 and divorced; the last thing I need is to get into a relationship with a 23-year-old baseball player\u201d\u2014but eventually, love blossomed. Over the course of a few years, Kendrick won a World Series ring with the Phillies, LaGrossa made her third \u201cSurvivor\u201d appearance with a short-lived turn on Season 20, and the couple married, moved to Florida (convenient for spring training), and had the first of their three kids. Marriage and motherhood suited her, but even then, she had a hunch she might not be done with her own competitive career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven before we had kids,\u201d she says, \u201cI told Kyle, \u2018I\u2019m going to drop it all, reality TV and anything else, because I love you, your career comes first, and I\u2019ll support you. But when you\u2019re done playing and we\u2019re at a point in our lives that something comes around for me, I\u2019m going to take the opportunity.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of those opportunities came before she was ready: calls from shows like \u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d and \u201cDancing with the Stars,\u201d tempting offers that didn\u2019t make sense while Kendrick was still pitching and their kids needed a parent at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Kendrick retired in 2017, the kids were busy with school and activities, and when the offer came in 2022 to join \u201cSnake in the Grass,\u201d the short commitment made it a relatively easy call. A few months later, she was asked to join the cast of \u201cThe Traitors,\u201d which debuted on Peacock in early 2023 and quickly became a hit for the streaming platform. For LaGrossa, the show\u2019s success was confirmation: The timing was right, and she was still up to the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A
Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick ’02 at her home in Florida.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Not long after, she was invited to join the cast for an upcoming season of \u201cAustralian Survivor,\u201d an offer that was made moot when producers of the American version contacted her about a spot on \u201cSurvivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans.\u201d She waited more than a year for confirmation that she\u2019d be one of the two dozen contestants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t find out for sure until probably six weeks before I was leaving, but I had worked out and trained and prepared as if I was going,\u201d LaGrossa says. \u201cThe first time I was on, I was 24, a Division I athlete. Now, I\u2019m in good shape for a 45-year-old mom, but I\u2019m 45. I\u2019ve had shoulder surgery. So, I trained like a lunatic. I thought, \u2018If I\u2019m going to blow out a knee, I want to do it now, not on the show.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She cannot, of course, share details from her time spent filming last summer in Fiji. What she can share is perspective on the very specific sort of celebrity that she\u2019s experienced, largely on her terms, for more than 20 years. Receiving messages from viewers who\u2019ve been inspired by her on-screen resilience. Learning how to handle online criticism from a fanbase that is deeply invested in the show\u2019s participants and outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And accepting what it means to age in the public eye, like when she met a fan on a recent \u201cSurvivor\u201d cruise who was just 10 years old when she rooted for LaGrossa on her first season\u2014or the fact that she\u2019s now old enough to be some contestants\u2019 mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age aside, in some ways, she\u2019s still the same woman she was 20 years ago\u2014 unsure of what comes next but open to whatever might prove a worthwhile challenge. She\u2019s excited for her children to be able to see her compete, and she loves the idea of appearing on a show that might someday allow her to team up with one of them. Appearing with her husband most likely won\u2019t happen\u2014he\u2019s not too fond of the idea of being on reality TV\u2014but LaGrossa can easily imagine competing alongside her son, Kyle Jr., in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for \u201cSurvivor?\u201d She guesses she\u2019s \u201cprobably done\u201d with the show that gave her a start and her first taste of stardom. \u201cThis is my fourth time,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018Come on, how many times are you going to do it?\u2019\u201d After a pause, she adds, \u201cBut who knows? If they do a 60 and I\u2019m still in good shape…\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two decades after first competing on “Survivor,” Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick ’02 is back for the show’s 50th season\u2014and still ready for a challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":21928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-21925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-alumni-profile"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Features","issue":"Fall\/Winter 2025","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21925"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21940,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21925\/revisions\/21940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}