A Point Guard Behind The Wheel
February 14, 2025 | Women's Basketball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
After a very busy and demanding start to 2025, Alexis Kendrick at last has all the time in the world to talk.
The former Georgia women's basketball point guard is making her way home after work Wednesday. And because she's a Los Angeles County firefighter whose 24-hour shift ended at 7:30 in the morning, Kendrick is hoping her commute home will only take about 90 minutes.
"I actually have a cousin who lives in Georgia right now, so every now and then I'll call her on my drive home to catch up," the Inglewood, Calif., native said in a phone interview. "I listen to a lot of music on these drives, and every now and then a podcast. I'll also try to catch up on what's happening in the real world."
Kendrick's world, like everyone who lives in the Los Angeles area, was turned upside down on Jan. 7, when the devastating wildfires began. To say that Kendrick and every member of every fire department in Southern California has already put in a year's worth of work through the first six weeks of 2025 would be an understatement.
"Honestly, it's been exhausting," she said.
The fires in and around Los Angeles last month, the Palisades and Eaton fires, have been called the deadliest and most destructive in California history. They were finally fully contained more than three weeks after they started. The fires killed at least 29 people, destroyed homes and entire neighborhoods, and will take years to come back from.
Kendrick was a firefighter-paramedic during the COVID pandemic, which was equally demanding in a lot of ways, but also a very different experience, she said.
"I was a paramedic, so I was actually really in contact with those who had COVID and had to be taken to the hospital. And there was the added problem that was our guys were getting sick, as well," she said. "With this, it was just like we were all wondering, when are we ever going to go home? We were stretched so thin."
Not only does Kendrick have a long commute to and from her station, but she is also an engineer with the fire department, which means she drives the big red engine to calls. She drove plenty as firefighters battled the blazes at numerous locations around Los Angeles.
"It's funny. I never thought of doing this as a kid, but when I got promoted (to engineer), it was exciting. But also, there's a huge responsibility, because this is a big piece of equipment, and driving, especially driving here in L.A., you have to really be cautious," she said. "You have to really be a defensive driver. I want to be able to get to whatever call we're going to, whether it's a fire or emergency call, as quickly as possible, but most importantly, as safely as we can, because we're carrying 500 gallons of water."
Kendrick was not only supposed to be off work on Jan. 7 when the fires began, she'd already been on the job at her fire station for 72 hours and was scheduled to be off for the next four days. Before she could leave, as the fires began to spread, "the dispatcher was like, 'All personnel stay inside the station. All personnel do not go home.'" That's when she knew this might be really big and really bad.
"As you can imagine, I didn't sleep for like three or four days straight, and I was already exhausted," she said. "It was just every single day, just running calls in our district, not going home. ... I wound up being on for nine days straight."
Kendrick has the distinction of starting more basketball games for Georgia than any player is school history. The Lady Bulldogs played 132 games during the point guard's four seasons (2002-06), and Kendrick started every one of them. She also joined the legendary Teresa Edwards and two-time SEC Player of the Year Kelly Miller as the only players to have 100 or more assists all four years. Kendrick ended with 545 assists, which now ranks fifth all-time at Georgia.
Her experiences as an athlete have definitely helped her as a firefighter, Kendrick said. She's a bit like the point guard of her crew.
"As an athlete, your goal is to win, but also to take care of each other on the court — to adapt," she said. "So going through those times at Georgia, especially as a point guard, has really translated to my position as an engineer, because I'm in charge of firefighters."
After her distinguished Georgia career came to an end, Kendrick signed with the WNBA's Charlotte Sting as a free agent. She later played in Serbia, but then while she was home and waiting to find out about a contract to play in France, Kendrick met a recruiter for the fire department at a career fair at USC she attended, tagging along with her sister.
"It worked out perfectly, but not in a million years did I ever think about becoming a firefighter — not a million years.," she said.
Kendrick is more than just a firefighter with the Los Angeles County F.D. She's one of the public faces of the organization, sometimes quoted in articles about different department-related issues. And as a member of the Stentorians of L.A. County, an organization of African-American firefighters founded in 1954, Kendrick was one of two models used for a firefighter tribute in Whittier, Calif. The statues depict a female and male firefighter working together to direct a hose at a fire.
Not that fires are all that Kendrick and her many colleagues deal with every day. They're one of many, many reasons why Kendrick may get behind the wheel of her engine. On the day she was headed home, it was raining in Los Angeles. It's a notoriously dry city, and one that had just endured horrible wildfires, so on one hand it seems like rain would be a welcome thing. But rain brings its own problems to L.A. in the form of mudslides.
"It's always something," she said with a laugh. "There's never a dull moment in the fire department."
Â
Staff Writer
After a very busy and demanding start to 2025, Alexis Kendrick at last has all the time in the world to talk.
The former Georgia women's basketball point guard is making her way home after work Wednesday. And because she's a Los Angeles County firefighter whose 24-hour shift ended at 7:30 in the morning, Kendrick is hoping her commute home will only take about 90 minutes.
"I actually have a cousin who lives in Georgia right now, so every now and then I'll call her on my drive home to catch up," the Inglewood, Calif., native said in a phone interview. "I listen to a lot of music on these drives, and every now and then a podcast. I'll also try to catch up on what's happening in the real world."
Kendrick's world, like everyone who lives in the Los Angeles area, was turned upside down on Jan. 7, when the devastating wildfires began. To say that Kendrick and every member of every fire department in Southern California has already put in a year's worth of work through the first six weeks of 2025 would be an understatement.
"Honestly, it's been exhausting," she said.
The fires in and around Los Angeles last month, the Palisades and Eaton fires, have been called the deadliest and most destructive in California history. They were finally fully contained more than three weeks after they started. The fires killed at least 29 people, destroyed homes and entire neighborhoods, and will take years to come back from.
Kendrick was a firefighter-paramedic during the COVID pandemic, which was equally demanding in a lot of ways, but also a very different experience, she said.
"I was a paramedic, so I was actually really in contact with those who had COVID and had to be taken to the hospital. And there was the added problem that was our guys were getting sick, as well," she said. "With this, it was just like we were all wondering, when are we ever going to go home? We were stretched so thin."
Not only does Kendrick have a long commute to and from her station, but she is also an engineer with the fire department, which means she drives the big red engine to calls. She drove plenty as firefighters battled the blazes at numerous locations around Los Angeles.
"It's funny. I never thought of doing this as a kid, but when I got promoted (to engineer), it was exciting. But also, there's a huge responsibility, because this is a big piece of equipment, and driving, especially driving here in L.A., you have to really be cautious," she said. "You have to really be a defensive driver. I want to be able to get to whatever call we're going to, whether it's a fire or emergency call, as quickly as possible, but most importantly, as safely as we can, because we're carrying 500 gallons of water."
Kendrick was not only supposed to be off work on Jan. 7 when the fires began, she'd already been on the job at her fire station for 72 hours and was scheduled to be off for the next four days. Before she could leave, as the fires began to spread, "the dispatcher was like, 'All personnel stay inside the station. All personnel do not go home.'" That's when she knew this might be really big and really bad.
"As you can imagine, I didn't sleep for like three or four days straight, and I was already exhausted," she said. "It was just every single day, just running calls in our district, not going home. ... I wound up being on for nine days straight."
Kendrick has the distinction of starting more basketball games for Georgia than any player is school history. The Lady Bulldogs played 132 games during the point guard's four seasons (2002-06), and Kendrick started every one of them. She also joined the legendary Teresa Edwards and two-time SEC Player of the Year Kelly Miller as the only players to have 100 or more assists all four years. Kendrick ended with 545 assists, which now ranks fifth all-time at Georgia.
Her experiences as an athlete have definitely helped her as a firefighter, Kendrick said. She's a bit like the point guard of her crew.
"As an athlete, your goal is to win, but also to take care of each other on the court — to adapt," she said. "So going through those times at Georgia, especially as a point guard, has really translated to my position as an engineer, because I'm in charge of firefighters."
After her distinguished Georgia career came to an end, Kendrick signed with the WNBA's Charlotte Sting as a free agent. She later played in Serbia, but then while she was home and waiting to find out about a contract to play in France, Kendrick met a recruiter for the fire department at a career fair at USC she attended, tagging along with her sister.
"It worked out perfectly, but not in a million years did I ever think about becoming a firefighter — not a million years.," she said.
Kendrick is more than just a firefighter with the Los Angeles County F.D. She's one of the public faces of the organization, sometimes quoted in articles about different department-related issues. And as a member of the Stentorians of L.A. County, an organization of African-American firefighters founded in 1954, Kendrick was one of two models used for a firefighter tribute in Whittier, Calif. The statues depict a female and male firefighter working together to direct a hose at a fire.
Not that fires are all that Kendrick and her many colleagues deal with every day. They're one of many, many reasons why Kendrick may get behind the wheel of her engine. On the day she was headed home, it was raining in Los Angeles. It's a notoriously dry city, and one that had just endured horrible wildfires, so on one hand it seems like rain would be a welcome thing. But rain brings its own problems to L.A. in the form of mudslides.
"It's always something," she said with a laugh. "There's never a dull moment in the fire department."
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Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.
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