Sean Saturnio, Army's special teams coordinator, does not describe the first minute of his meeting as a warm-up. He describes it as a transition, and he is specific about what his players are transitioning from.

"Our guys have one of the heaviest schedules in all of college football, probably the heaviest schedule there. So by the time they've come up to football, they've had a full day of, you know, we talk about not making football into rocket science. Shoot. We got actually kids that have to study rocket science over here."

That sentence, from his Lauren's First and Goal Clinic presentation that aired on the Lauren's First and Goal Game Planning Tips podcast on the Coach and Coordinator Network, explains everything Army does at the front and back of the special teams meeting. The players arrive carrying a day. The meeting has to get them to set it down before anyone can teach them anything. Saturnio's answer is three pieces that run every time: an opener, a segment he calls daily seasoning, and a closer.

The opener: clapping and yelling on purpose

Army special teams meetings begin with everybody clapping and yelling. Saturnio is clear that it is not just a fun way to start, although he says it is that too. He points to what he describes as the science behind it. "It releases endorphins. It helps them become more alert, releases tension."

The image he uses is of a player carrying a load. "They've just been carrying this big load of educational baggage. They got it up here. They dropped that off in their locker room. This is one way that, you know, gets them locked in over there."

Saturnio ties the openers and closers to a bigger idea. He referenced "the opportunity to be the best you" as the third foundational characteristic "that they found in these great cultures, in these business organizations," without naming the source in this segment, and said the openers and closers are one way Army has tried to build that in. Read plainly, the opener is not about noise. It is about deciding what state you want a player in before the first slide goes up, and doing something about it rather than hoping he arrives that way.

Daily seasoning

After the opener comes what Saturnio calls daily seasoning, and he says it is the one thing the meeting will "unequivocally" always begin with. Every special teams meeting gets a quote, a story, or a video before any football.

"They're never sure what they're gonna listen to when they first get into the special teams meeting," he said, and that is part of the appeal. He has heard from the players that it is something they look forward to.

The material is chosen to do two jobs at once. Everything in the daily seasoning is meant to apply to what the players have to do on the field. But Saturnio is explicit that the second job is the bigger one.

"More importantly, it will transcend them as football players, but it also be pouring in and seasoning them up for that day that they may become husbands or become fathers. They'll all become platoon leaders at some point in time."

He extended it further, to the communities his players will eventually lead in, and the hope that they "continue to serve and lead and be a shining light on a hilltop for whatever community that they live in." The seasoning is one way, in his words, to "cover all those bases for them."

The examples he showed give a feel for the range. One day it is a Kobe Bryant video about competing. One day it is a story, and the one he walked through is the giant timber bamboo.

Water the bamboo

The bamboo story, as Saturnio tells it, goes like this. When you plant giant timber bamboo and water it, it takes forever to show any growth at all. Then, right when it looks like the grove will never grow, it shoots up at a speed that "just blows your mind."

He connects it directly to the players' work. "Just like in everything that they're working on. Nothing's gonna be immediate. We're in a real click, click, click, try expect results society. And like we all know, greatness, excellence doesn't come with a snap of a finger."

One sign that the story stuck is that it made its way into the players' vocabulary. "You'll hear catchphrases with the kids about they'll talk about watering the bamboo and things like that."

That is the practical case for daily seasoning. A quote read once is a quote. A story the players start repeating to each other becomes shared language for an idea like patience.

Saturnio's stated reason for the whole segment is simple: "I think it's anything that we can do to keep kids engaged." And the placement is not incidental. It always goes at the beginning, "where then you get yourself a good captive audience."

The closer: two claps and a sauce team

The meeting ends the way it starts, with energy on purpose. At the end of every special teams meeting, Saturnio picks somebody in the room. That player stands up and calls for it: "Hey everybody, give me two claps and a sauce team." The room gives two claps, a "sauce team," and then everybody lets out a woo. Saturnio said it was built off the "two claps and a Ric Flair" idea.

Then the players head to their position meetings, and that is the point of the closer. Special teams is not the last room they will sit in. Saturnio wants them walking into the offensive or defensive position room in the same state the opener put them in.

"When we close and they're heading out to their position meetings, it does the same thing as now when they're going into their offensive or defensive position rooms over there, they should be alert ready. And whatever that side of the ball has for them, that particular meeting, they're locked and loaded."

What are your players carrying into the room?

None of this is scheme. Saturnio did not present a punt protection or a kickoff return. What he presented is a meeting design built on an honest read of who is walking through the door and what they are carrying.

The pattern in his three pieces is that each one has a stated purpose beyond feeling good. The opener changes the player's state. The seasoning gives him something that applies on the field and outlives the field. The closer hands him off to the next coach ready to learn. Saturnio does not treat any of it as optional, and he does not treat it as separate from the football. He calls the seasoning something Army will "always begin with."

For a coach, the question his approach raises is not whether you should clap and yell. It is what your players are carrying when they sit down, and what, if anything, your first minute does about it.

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