The idea hit me while watching the Florida State softball team battle with UCLA in extra innings one week ago.

The Seminoles, as you might recall, wound up winning that game. Which isn't breaking news because so far in 2022, they have won every single game they've played. They're now 15-0.

But what struck me that day -- and has always struck me -- is how loose the players seem to be in the dugout and out in the field. From inning to inning. Game to game. Series to series. Month to month. Year to year.

It never seems to change. Florida State Softball is having fun.

It's what commentators talk about every time the Seminoles are on TV. It's what I talk about on our podcasts. It's what fans Tweet at me when they're telling me how much they enjoy watching Lonni Alameda's team.

And so here was my thought: As much as they enjoy the game, as many smiles as we see every inning, from pretty much everyone in the lineup, there's one thing that doesn't need to get lost in what this program has become: These players work their tails off in practice, and in the offseason, and in individual training, to make sure they are able to have so much fun when it matters most.

Don't let the smiles fool you. This is one of the hardest-working programs in America.

"What is fun?" Alameda said rhetorically. "What is fun, right? We can be all Kumbaya and sit around and have s'mores, or we can (work hard)."

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So on Thursday of last week, a day after FSU's comeback win over FAMU and a day before a doubleheader against Hofstra and Indiana, Alameda let me spend the day with her team as it did what it does every day: Work hard and have fun.

The team meeting started at 2:30 p.m. But by 2 p.m. at the FSU softball complex, most of the team was already there. Some were taking groundballs on the infield. Some were in the cage getting swings against soft toss.

And one pitcher, Emma Wilson, was getting a 30-minute individual session with Alameda, who is the team's pitching coach.

The mission today for the veteran head coach was to get her junior to improve her curveball. It was a long, detailed process, with Alameda literally taking a hands-on approach at one point to work with Wilson's release point and footwork.

As I stood behind the catcher with Alameda, we watched Wilson throw curveball after curveball.

"That one seemed to move a good bit," I said after one.

Alameda: "Yeah, but not enough to beat the people we're trying to beat."

A few pitches later: "There you go. Much better. Did you feel the difference?"

After 30 minutes, and a whole lot of instruction, the two seemed pleased with the progress that had been made.

Then it was time for the team meeting.

The entire roster, along with the coaching staff, piled into a classroom to go over the film from the night before and get a sneak peek at the two opponents looming that weekend.

The vibe was loose but engaged.

The best way to describe it is this: Did you ever have one of those English or history teachers that the whole class just seemed to connect with? Maybe they were funny or irreverent, and they had a way of teaching you while also creating an enjoyable environment?

Jokes could be cracked. Laughter wasn't forbidden. It was OK to talk if you had something valuable to say. And before you knew it, you were learning without even realizing you were being taught something.

That is a Florida State softball team meeting.

The players are all engaged with what is happening on the screen. They might laugh at something they see, or something a teammate or coach says, but that doesn't mean they're not listening to what is being said while the clips are being shown.

It's full engagement.

Alameda doesn't mind a light mood as they're watching their comeback win over the Rattlers, but she also has points to make: Baserunning mistakes are addressed. So are bad at-bats. Not harshly. Not in a, "What in the world was that?" type of critique. But more in a, "We've got to be better there" sort of tone.

"Good effort here," she told one of her infielders. "But if you stay on your feet, you throw her out. She's one step out of the box."

"I think we're very real with them, and we'll say, 'Hey, this is a business talk,'" Alameda said afterward. "We'll bring them in here and talk business. Like, 'Hey, you're not having good at-bats. That's business. We love you as a person. Love your growth. So, let's keep talking about that.

"And we kind of live at that crossroads."

Before the team meeting started Thursday, all of the players gathered for a quick video to wish a kid named Christopher happy birthday.

On her first attempt at the video, Illinois State transfer Mack Leonard flubbed the opening line. She might have then uttered an expletive, which made the entire room crack up. She nailed the second take, though.

And then near the end of the meeting, new Florida State President Richard McCullough poked his head in with his family just to tell the team congratulations on the win the previous night as well as the earlier one over UCLA.

Not surprisingly, the Prez is a big fan of the softball team. As was his predecessor, John Thrasher.

Of course, they aren't alone.

Alameda's squad has become a huge fan favorite of Florida State supporters all across the country.

The winning helps. Clearly. So does the prevailing positive attitude on Game Day.

But the work is the most important thing. It always is. And it always will be.

Thursday's team meeting lasted about 45 minutes, with the final 15 being a scouting report of what the Seminoles could expect against Indiana and Hofstra.

The coaches had been watching film throughout the last week. They had some simple, but important notes for the team: Indiana loves, loves, loves to take the extra base on offense. Alameda and her coaches made that crystal clear. Be aware of double-steals, delay-steals -- any and all types of mayhem.

As for Hofstra: The Pride were 0-4 coming into the weekend. And while the coaches didn't say anything even remotely approaching this, it was clear that everyone in the room understood that if FSU played well against Hofstra, FSU was going to beat Hofstra. Probably pretty easily.

"We play the game, not the opponent," Alameda reminded her players.

Then practice began.

The first 45 minutes was all defense.

Alameda hit ground balls to pitchers in left field, and the rest of the infielders took grounders at breakneck speed. It really is something to behold to watch FSU Softball take infield practice.

Leonard, who is a senior, said it's unlike anything she's ever experienced.

It's hard to explain in a way that does it justice, but just about every person on the roster is involved. Outfielders are throwing bullets to different bases -- Kalei Harding has an absolute cannon, by the way, in right field -- and infielders are working on quick tags.

Then they're working on double plays. Then they're working on cutting down lead runners and trying to eliminate a team's short game. All at full speed. And with all the players cheering each other on.

Every time a good play is made -- and this is FSU Softball, so that's a lot -- you hear teammates yell, "Great job, Syd!" Or "Nice play, Nev!"

It was apparent in the team meeting room when they were watching film together, but it's even more evident on the practice field: They really are fans of each other.

That's not to say issues don't come up occasionally. Or that players don't get frustrated if they're not playing a lot. But the culture that's been built makes sure that doesn't permeate the team.

"If you're going to truly be a family, then be a family," Alameda said. "I'm not here to make your life miserable. Life is too precious to be miserable. College softball, you get four years of it. So, let's be all about it."

Case in point: When Michaela Edenfield takes batting practice.

First and foremost, it's an incredible sight. I would suggest all of you try to do it at least once. Where she hits softballs isn't normal. It defies physics. She's hitting line drives that still seem to be rising when they hit the trees in left-center field. She's hitting absolute bombs to left that are bounding into the parking garage across the street. It's nuts.

But here's the thing: Edenfield is a redshirt freshman. She's playing with a roster full of veterans who have played in -- and in Sydney Sherrill's case -- won a Women's College World Series championship.

And yet if they're bothered by all the attention their young teammate is getting, they certainly do a great job of hiding it.

Junior Devyn Flaherty saw me pull out my phone to record Edenfield's swings: "Yeah, that's definitely the one to get on video," she said with a smile.

When Edenfield hit a ball into the parking lot on one swing, a teammate simply started laughing.

Sherrill, the All-American veteran, even chuckled as she got into the batter's box after one of those massive blasts.

"Line drive," she said out loud to remind herself.

Which made assistant coach Travis Wilson laugh. Because as good as Sherrill is, and she's one of the best in program history, they both know she can't match the kind of power they just saw. So why try? Just concentrate on being the best Sydney Sherrill.

I lost count of how many home runs the players hit in batting practice, but it had to be in the neighborhood of 50. And again, even though some players are competing against each other for at-bats and playing time, when they see a good swing, they show their appreciation.

It's a culture.

At the end of the day, they're teammates. They're family.

They wear shirts that say, "LIVE GATE."

GATE is an acronym that means, Give your all to the team every day.

Every team in America has slogans. The sports world has the market cornered on them. And like me, you might roll your eyes at some or most of them.

But GATE is the lifeblood of Florida State Softball.

It's at the heart of what Alameda has built and what she's trying to maintain.

The way her team cheers and fights for each other, she says, is one of the reasons they are one of the best in the country.

"I think you can fall in love with these girls," Alameda said. "They're not going for major-league contracts. They're just here to have fun, work hard and get a degree."

And win games. Lots and lots of games.

Alameda's team is so good, in fact, that it somehow avoided the typical Corey Clark jinx and was able to win four games this weekend AFTER I hung out with them for an afternoon.

They won those four games by a combined margin of 25-1.

They hit the stitching out of the ball. They have two great starting pitchers and another one hoping to get there one day (if she can keep developing that curveball). They're one of the best fielding teams in the country.

And they run the bases like there's a pile of gold 60 feet away, always pushing the envelope of aggression to take that extra base.

In short: They're fun to watch.

But what was most telling after spending just one day with them is the reason the Seminoles are so much fun to watch on game days: It's because of how hard they work when there's no one in the stands.

Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.

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