First of a two-part series - Making the Cut
By Denelle Spear - Buffalo Reflex

Before deciding whether or not to compete on CBS television's "Survivor," Heidi Strobel listed all the pros and cons. When her list was finished, there was only one more pro than con, but Strobel decided to accept the offer.

Strobel, who graduated from Buffalo High School in 1997, began her journey into reality television with an audition tape for "The Amazing Race." Even though she didn't get an offer for that show, her tape generated enough interest that she received a request to submit an audition tape for "Survivor."

"My first thought about "Survivor" was that I'm not eating rats," Strobel said. "If I was going to go on the show, I wanted it to be a positive experience, which is why I made my list."

Approximately 60 to 80 thousand people apply each season for "The Amazing Race" and "Survivor" combined.

"Being selected for "Survivor" is based on what you've made of your life beforehand," Strobel said. "It's everything you've done before that they're looking at."

Strobel knew last May that she was going to compete on "Survivor," but it wasn't officially announced by CBS until September. Strict confidentiality agreements prohibited Strobel from telling people about being selected for the show. Only her mother, Kathy Dugas, and her boyfriend, Justin Sinning, knew what Strobel was doing.

After Strobel left for the Amazon, Dugas told friends and family that Heidi was working on her master's degree through Drury University's global studies program.

When Strobel was offered a teaching contract at Eldon, she couldn't tell school administrators where she would be headed in the fall, but she did tell them she had a prior commitments.

"I told them I was obligated to a previous contract, and that if they didn't want to hire me, that was okay," Strobel said. But they said they understood, so I went ahead and signed the contract."

Strobel just completed her first year of teaching. She taught seventh and eighth grade physical education and health.

Playing the Game

"I went into the show with the mindset of an athlete," Strobel said. "You have the attitude that you are a true player, and it's a game. There's no room for quitters. I left my personality out of the game and tried to approach it as an athlete.

"I don't think people understand how incredibly bored you are at times," Strobel said. "There's so much down time, the cameras are on 24/7, but three days on the island made up one week's episode. There's not a moment that the camera isn't on you. They are there when you first wake up, but after the first week, you kind of forget about them being there.

"The show is edited to sometimes make you look like a certain kind of person," Strobel said. "Jeff Probst, the host of the show, has been quoted as saying they poke and prod and push and that way they are sure to have a good show."

Strobel watched the television show for the first time along with the millions of viewers that tuned in each week. "We didn't get to preview anything, and watching the show, you could see how things were sometimes edited to look a certain way," Strobel said.

"My last night on the island at tribal council, I knew I was being voted off. What people didn't hear was that I said I knew it was my last night, and when I said I had masterminded a lot of what happened on the island, it was still part of my strategy. People didn't hear me say I knew I was leaving, so it made my remarks sound different.

"If I had chosen to play as Heidi Strobel, if I was nice to everybody, no one would have taken me seriously," she said. "There's a perception that being strong-willed and nice don't go together.

"I kept a positive attitude and never once complained or cried when others would whine," Strobel said. "I think the coach in me came out and you know you can't give in to the negativity in the environment.

"It was really hard to endure, but I imagined my family's reaction if I gave up. I knew they had high expectations and so did I."

Primitive Conditions

The first night in the Amazon was the worst, Strobel said. "It's the most stressful environment you can imagine," she said. "It's your worst nightmare, multiplied by three. You're out of your comfort zone and out of your element.

"There's no one around that loves you. About the second day, you realize you're surrounded by people that don't care about you and you're beginning to dehydrate. Being really dehydrated does all kinds of things to your body. You get to the point where you pass out and it makes you throw up.

"You have no shelter, and there are spiders and snakes everywhere. It hits you: this is real. Up until that moment you think someone will help you if you get in trouble, but then you realize you don't really have any help outside of camp. It's just you and your machete."

On the first episode of the show, a large tarantula was in the tribes' food. "That first time, we kind of freaked out," Strobel said. "But then it was no big deal because they were everywhere. You just kind of got used to them, but the real worry was that they would be on the ceiling of the huts and you'd worry that they were going to drop down on you anytime."

One night, Strobel was bitten on the knee by an aranha spider, which is a type of tarantula. "I lost the feeling in my leg for about two and a half months," she said.

"They have got the worst medical conditions there, so you really don't want to go to a hospital, and there wasn't really anything that could be done, anyway.

"There was a medical staff on call about 30 minutes away, and they did drain my knee. When Alex (another player) got cut with the machete, they made sure he had his head stitched up, but pretty much you're on your own.

There are so many animals there, so many things that could have hurt me and didn't. The crocodiles would stay away if there was a fire, so we took turns keeping a fire watch all night. They told us the panthers would attack anytime, day or night. The fire didn't bother them. A panther was spotted once, and that night I slept in the middle of the group because I just knew I was going to be panther food."

How Hungry Are You?

"Imagine your hungriest day and multiply it times 36," Strobel said. "The fish was good, but there was never enough of it to eat to really fill you up."; Strobel's weight dropped to 86 pounds while she was on the island.

"I've really only been well for about a month," Strobel said. "The health problems were very traumatizing. Your body goes into survival mode, and you shut down so much of yourself to survive. It took everything to stay sharp mentally."

On one episode, Strobel and Jenna Morasca, who would eventually become the sole survivor and win the $1 million prize, took off their clothes for chocolate and peanut butter. "The show made more out of it than it was," Strobel said. "It was day 21, and you can't believe how hungry we were.

"I knew it was the first individual challenge, and we weren't a team anymore. From then on, we had to play as individuals. I decided to play a weak card by being one of the first ones willing to quit the challenge, and go for the food.

"It was a strategy because I knew from my exercise physiology classes how much protein there was in peanut butter and how important protein is to your body. And I was hungry, so hungry. At that point, I thought I'd never get food again. I knew the protein would make me a stronger competitor in the next challenge. I would say it was 25 percent strategy and 75 percent hunger."

Some of the criticism has stung Strobel. "It's one thing for me to downplay my own intelligence in the game, but it's another thing for other people to. People that really know me saw my strategy in the game."

Next week in the conclusion of this two part series, find out what's next for Heidi Strobel. She'll tell how she's handling both praise and criticism following her appearance on the show.

©Buffalo Reflex 2003