There is no secret sauce to Nathan Martindale’s basketball coaching recipe.

Work hard and compete every practice and game, and success will happen. Without it, it won’t.

“The first thing, and the No. 1 thing, is compete. No one or team is perfect, but they must compete,” Martindale emphasized. “We want the idea that every possession is compete, compete. That’s been the message since Day 1.”

So far, so good for the Eastern Greene High School’s girls’ basketball team.

coach nathan martindale. photo courtesy of eastern greene middle school.

Martindale is starting his first season as varsity coach, but he’s not new to the school. He was a standout athlete for the Thunderbirds, graduating in 2003. His senior season they finished 19-5, losing a sectional heartbreaker to Evansville Mater Dei, 43-42.

With his current group, which starts play Tuesday, Nov. 3 at Owen Valley, he likes what he sees so far.

“With the senior group we have, and the younger girls, if you’re having fun and competing, it’s an enjoyable experience,” Martindale said.

“The girls are enjoying themselves.”

Martindale played basketball his freshman and sophomore years at Franklin College before an injury ended his playing career.

He spent time teaching at Washington and North Putnam before returning to Greene County.

He didn’t expect to ever return to the area to teach or coach.

“The funny thing is, I never thought I’d come back here. After Franklin College, I loved that area and I met my wife (Brittney) there,” Martindale said. “It was kind of her idea to come back.”

When did he decide he wanted to coach the varsity girls? He was on the beach during spring break last March.

“I honestly thought I’d never get back into head coaching. We were on spring break last spring in March, and I was sitting on the beach. That was when it started to hit me, ‘Oh man, like I want to do this again’,” Martindale explained.

“I was watching some film last (school year) and I watched them not block out and my wife looked at me and said, ‘You are going to take the job aren’t you?’ I said, ‘Yup, I’m taking the job’.”

Martindale’s roots run deep in eastern Greene County.

“Obviously, you know my heart is here. It has been here since birth, so that’s obviously a thing that drew me,” Martindale said. “I would never have taken any other but the Eastern job. When I retire from this one, I’ll be done.

“Eastern has such a special place in my heart. I’m just trying to do the best I can to help this program.”

And the program isn’t just on the high school level. Starting in the lower grades is something Martindale is emphasizing.

“We’ve got a good senior class and a good freshman class, but we’re looking at it from a lot of different levels. We want to compete right away, but we’re also looking at building up the next level, the freshmen and middle school,” Martindale explained.

“We’ve restructured the youth league a little that we haven’t done in the past. We found a guy who will run everything I want them to run. That’s how you start to see your program progress. You have to invest down there (lower grades). The high school girls are busy with three games (this) week, but once it settles down, they will work with those girls on their skills.”

Martindale, the middle school athletic director and U.S. History teacher, credits two people for his career — Jeff Goodwin (for teaching) and Andy Igel (for coaching).

“Jeff was the person who influenced me to get into teaching. He was great,” Martindale said. “Coach Igel was 100 percent the person who got me into coaching.”

Igel spent 16 seasons with the Thunderbirds (1996-2012) and had a 243-125 record. Eastern Greene won five sectionals, one regional, and seven Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference titles under Igel.

His overall career coaching record is 287-210.

“Coach Igel was the guy. He’s very passionate and obviously everybody knows him as a defensive-minded guy,” Martindale said.

Martindale said Igel’s best trait is how he treats his players while coaching and years later.

“He texted me after our first practice. He cares about his players 20 years later,” Martindale stressed. “He has a relationship with the guys. He could ride them hard if he needed to because he had that type of relationship with them. He loves coaching.”

This season will be a little different for Martindale as a father. His daughter Lilly is a freshman and is listed as a varsity and junior varsity player. His other daughter, Grace, is a sixth grader.

That will give the Martindale family, including the coach’s wife (Brittney), plenty to talk about.

“Before I decided to take this job, I asked them (his family) if it was OK,” Martindale said.

“When we’re on the floor I’ll have my coach’s hat on, and when we get in the car after practice or a game, I’ll have my dad hat on. It’s going to be pretty special.”

Eastern Greene hasn’t won a sectional since the 2007-08 season when it caught fire late in the season and advanced to the championship game of the Class 2A regional. It lost to Austin, 67-62. The Lady Thunderbirds finished 12-16 that season.

After the past two seasons with a 12-32 record, Martindale is looking to turn things around. The previous four seasons, Eastern Greene compiled an overall record of 54-31.

The Lady Thunderbirds have five seniors to build around — Maddie Sylvester, Kaelyn Johnson, Grace Deckard, Laura Goodman, and Shelby Ferkinstad.

After Tuesday’s opener at Owen Valley, Eastern Greene is at Brown County on Thursday and host South Knox on Saturday in their home opener.