Lonni Alameda is smiling and feeling well. She has wrapped up weekly trips to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and now is going every third week as she fights a breast cancer diagnosis - a battle that she announced to the public on March 31.

“I have two more sessions left,” Alameda said. “Things are good. Been trying to figure out how to manage it. And they said, ‘In the beginning, by the time you're done with this, you'll figure out how to manage it.’ Isn't that everything? But yeah, been doing great, great support. Easier in the summer. You can kind of manage your downtime and obviously there's recruiting and camps and things like that.

“But I think I've been a little bit smarter, and Travis (Wilson), Troy (Cameron) and the staff have been great at helping me out, balance all of that and balance the recruiting. It's been good.”

Alameda is enjoying a break before the Florida State softball team flies to England to play exhibition games in August. International trips are allowed every four years, and this one is scheduled at the right window as the Seminoles say goodbye to nine seniors and turn to a large group of redshirt freshmen and true freshmen who will compete for playing time.

In a one-on-one interview with the Osceola, Alameda discusses how the FSU coaching staff has helped give her breaks when she needed them, reflected on the 2025 Seminoles and discusses some of the new faces on the 2026 team. Alameda also addresses why the Seminoles didn’t sign a transfer this summer, preferring to give opportunities to the younger players.

You’ve hired well and retained assistant coaches who could be head coaches by now. They seem to love FSU and Tallahassee. How integral have they been at taking some of the load off you when you need time away?

Alameda: We know this time of year is huge for us in recruiting, and they're really good at what they do. And they have pride in the program, too. So it's not just for me. I think that we have an entire staff that absolutely loves the program, and they want the best for the program. I think they're going to put their best foot forward when needed. And regardless of the situation, they've always been like that. So it's not like anything's really different at this point. I just think honestly, the softball world all is understanding right now. Everyone's understanding.

I go somewhere to recruit and someone offers their chair. It's just super cool because my story is definitely out there. I think everyone's been really good at that. And then we had a GA, Kyler Holton, that stayed on and helped out, too. He got a job at UNC Wilmington but decided to stay on an extra three or four weeks to help me out. I could go out during the days, but he could stay out there all day. Everyone's just been so supportive. And, yeah, I'm very lucky for the staff that we have.

FSU had nine seniors in 2025, including Michaela Edenfield, Annabelle Widra, Julia Apsel, Katie Dack and Jahni Kerr. What did the group mean to you and the program?

Alameda: This senior class was gathered so uniquely. You definitely had some in the four-year cycle. You had some in the five-year cycle. You had some in the transfer cycle. Some of the transfers for two years. Some were one year. So by the time you get to the senior season and have nine seniors, everyone's journey to it was different. And so I think that's what made it so unique and special is, of course, you get to your senior year and you reflect on your career, and you reflect on your opportunities and how much you love the game itself. And for some, like Michaela, could go on and continue to play. For some, it's going to be last time in their spikes, and they're done and they're on to the real world. I think that reflection process made it super special …

Something that has been special about the program is they just realize it's not about them and their senior year — it's about the season itself. But they also know that sharing their stories is very important for the young ones to know that at one point you're going to be in the shoes that we're in right now. So we want to give everything to you so you can have the best of your four years like we did. And they did a really good job of that.

When you lose nine seniors do you start to look at roster management differently than in other years? It’s nine leaders and different personalities. How did you attack roster management as far as you know the younger ladies better from practice and their development more than we do as media or FSU’s fans?

Alameda: I think that's the fun of college sports. I obviously haven't been in the professional ranks. Of course, professionally it would be good to see Jessie Warren if you're coaching and you get to be around her for 10 years and see what she's doing. She's incredible right now. But as a college coach, you only get them for four. You get that opportunity to see what they are like, wide-eyed as a freshman and then to see how mature and ready they are for the world as a senior. And then you go back to developing the freshmen to the senior. And I think that's the thing that keeps me going. Because the game allows so much personal growth through highs and lows and disciplines and teammate ability that I get to be the guardrails on that highway for them to kind of keep them going to find their way.

When you have a senior class that gets it, which we're lucky that every year the senior class gets it, and they're like, ‘Man, I know how special these four years are. Let me contribute to the young ones, so then they can get their own journey and get it when they get here, too.’ They understand it. We pour into the freshman class before they even get here because we know how important that is. Regardless that we knew we had nine seniors, we were already pouring into the ’25 and ’26 commits, because their journey was going to be just as special as these guys’ journey. Different journey, but it's going to be just as special. And so knowing that we like the athleticism, we obviously went out and recruited a lot of kids that can play middle infield. This is a special group with a lot of middle infielders. Building out pitching has been something that we've done all along, but it's getting even more important as we go into the future of the game itself. Have quite a few good arms.

This year we opted not to go in the transfer portal just because of how unique this House (vs. NCAA) case, NIL, everything's just kind of transitioning right now. We wanted to keep the opportunity for the amount of kids that we are bringing in to grow. We didn't want to stunt their growth in that sense. We knew how athletic we were, and we had great returners already. And let the dust settle on this whole transition of what it’s going to be like with the House case and all that and kind of figure out how we're going to move forward on that side of it. So that's where this London trip comes in here in August. And connection is going to be quite important. And the understanding of the person is going to be really important. But we as a coaching staff have that good grip on the incoming kids. Now it's a matter of getting our team that good grip on that.

You mentioned deciding consciously not to dip into the portal. Was it fit of a personality or a name? Was it price tag? It’s a new era. Or is it as you said you have freshmen and sophomores and you want to see them have the opportunities?

Alameda: I think it's a bit of everything, honestly. Price tag was definitely something there, because we had a little window of wild, wild west there before the House case did get passed. It was a conversation, and then it opened up a couple more months and it got a little crazy. And a lot of people were asking for things that — we just wanted to protect our culture and our team. And I think we had a lot of good talks about that. And I get it, it's very important to acquire talent.

When I sit down with (athletics director) Mr. (Michael) Alford, my job is to get this team to the World Series and to win championships. And I understand that part of it, but I don't think it's going to be at the expense of losing everything that we think is very important to our program. And we do have quality kids coming in. I'm not saying that at all. It's just going to take a little while to get some experience, and that's our job as a coaching staff to give them some experience, to allow them to grow a little bit.

So, yeah, the original question on that side of it. There was a lot of factors that went into it. Not that we didn't talk to people. But it's just super important to stay grounded in our values and kind of where we're at. And then like I said again let the dust settle and see where this new journey is going to take college athletics. And then where it takes softball. I'm excited for these young ones. I'm excited for the growth. The coach at heart, everyone knows that when you get young ones coming in and they just want to be the best they can be, knowing that what's ahead of them is going to be a lot of failure, but if we have good relationships with them, they'll bounce back. And I think we've already laid the foundation for that. I think we feel very strongly about this rookie class.

You have production and leadership in the circle. You have Jaysoni Beachum and Isa Torres. A lot of us are trying to pencil in who could be in this position or that position. How important is the England trip to that end?

Alameda: We've been able to see a lot of them compete. And there's a few of them that have come to Tallahassee early, also just to get in the weight room and work out and get stronger and kind of get a jump. Marin Heller has had a great summer so far. And, you know, it's kind of funny, this group is coming from a lot of different states — you got Pennsylvania, we've got Iowa. Of course, we got our Florida girls. We've got North Carolina. Harlie Chism came in from Oklahoma, she's not playing this summer, but she wanted to get stronger and get to know Tallahassee. So she's been in here already. And so it says a lot to me when they're willing to leave states, and their families are willing to be about it, to be better for September, to be better for February. And so it's been kind of cool.

Anna Hinde, behind the dish. Obviously with Michaela leaving, everyone's like, ‘Who's going to catch?’ And we know Madi Frey's done a great job behind there. And Bella (Ruggiero) redshirted, Anna had a great summer back there. We got Danika Spinogatti. We've got some depth back there to compete. Anna's been around for a while. She committed pretty early. She knows the system.

Hayley Griggs’ sister played at Pittsburgh, so she gets the whole college thing. She just graduated. Hayley is coming into your four-year cycle. She's had a great summer at shortstop. Averi Dockery, I think is a young one, getting after some competition a little bit more this summer than she's been in the past. I think she's got a lot of growth ahead of her. She can pitch hit, she can play some infield. So she's going to be a fun one to watch and kind of see what she does. Makenna Sturgis can run like the wind, super athletic. Can play infield, can play outfield.

It's really hard right now to be like, ‘Second base is going to be this person.’ As much as our returners have done a great job, this year is going to be super competitive everywhere. And I think that's going to make our returners better and our program better. So there's no sliding in returner and be like, ‘Oh, you're locked down.’ It is, ‘Here's some very athletic kids that are playing a really quality summer ball, and let's challenge our team to be better.’ And then let the chips fall where they fall come February, April.

Kennedy Harp is coming off the season-ending injury in April. What is she able to do in her recovery?

Alameda: Weight room and rehab are the two things that she's getting out. She's doing great. Kennedy is one of the most positive people I've been around. And we all know this, as we get older in life and we have more experiences under our belt, that's when we truly see the character of people. Just when things are not going well or not going well for them. And Kennedy, at one point, there was a little time on the bench in Louisville when she came in, her dad came in, and tears came to her face.

And then right away, she's like, ‘It's in God's hands, and I'm going to do everything I can to get back out here with my teammates.’ And she has been nothing but that ever since, and it's been incredible. I don't think we'll see her in the fall, probably some little isolated stuff in the cages. But she'd be more of a springtime get after kid. I think she's really ahead of progress. She's doing great. But that gives us more opportunity to get more experiences in the outfield and get after that.

You can only travel internationally with a college softball team once every four years. Did you and the coaches design this to be the year to travel to London knowing this would be a younger team?

Alameda: This is something that I wanted to do for a while. I wanted to give these kids the experience. I've traveled internationally. I've coached with Canada. Kayleigh Rafter as the head coach of Team Canada. This summer alone, she’s been in Columbia and off to China. It just reminds me of the experience traveling with your teams. When you get to see other countries and what softball is in other countries, you realize the contribution we have to the world game. So we can get caught up in our little Florida State, the Plex softball. Then you get caught up in the ACC. We want to be national. But then when you get outside that and you realize Olympics and professional and all the things that contribute to it, if you don't go see it, if you're not a part of it, you can't realize that what you do today really does matter, you know? For me, I just really wanted to take the team internationally somewhere and feel that out. And so that takes a lot to fundraise. It takes a while to organize. So yeah, it kind of happened to fall into this window, which was, ‘Oh, light bulb. This is going to be great now because we have graduated this many kids.’

My hope is people aren't talking about how young we are. I hope they're talking about this team and how athletic we are. And I hope the narrative starts to be like, ‘We just need some more experience and we're going to be fine.’ So if I can create some experiences on and off the field in different environments, and we can grow quicker, these freshmen are going to have an incredible four years. And then instantly these juniors to next year being seniors who've been very impactful, are going to have an ability to make a run. And so this is going to hopefully, in my mind, is going to give us a little jump start to that connection piece. But then just my heart of international softball is going to give the little light to everything that we can contribute and do.

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