The Man Behind The Bench: Derek Army

On a winter afternoon after a post-game fan skate, Olde City Sports sat down with Wheeling Nailers Head Coach, Derek Army about preparing to be coach, preparing his bench for post-season play, and making changes in game. 

Army played in a multitude of games in the ECHL and AHL from 2013-2018. Over the course of his career in the ECHL, he played only with the Wheeling Nailers and played in 159 games. He tallied 59 goals and 71 assists in those games. He served as Captain for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons. In the midst of his ECHL career, he earned several call-ups to the AHL with Portland Pirates, Ontario Reign, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Texas Stars, Tucson Roadrunners, and Milwaukee Admirals. He dressed in 97 games and tallied 11 goals and 15 assists during his AHL games. 

Army served as the Assistant Coach for the Worcester Railers before going back to Wheeling and serving as the Assistant Coach until the 2020-2021 season when he was promoted to Head Coach on April 20th, 2021. He now serves as Head Coach and Director Of Operations for the Wheeling Nailers. Army comes from a hockey family with his father being Tim Army, who served as Head Coach of the Colorado Avalanche for six seasons and the Iowa Wild for five seasons before going to the Anaheim Ducks as Assistant Coach. Army speaks on what it was like to be a player and how it prepared him to be a coach: “Fortunately for me, With my dad being a long time NHL coach in a long time, I grew up around the game. So as a kid, I saw him go through it and that ultimately I knew what I wanted, that I wanted to get into coaching and kind of follow his footsteps. As I became a player, I played on so many teams and for so many coaches that I had a book of my own of what I liked and didn't like about a coach, or just some of the little ins and outs of my systems that I liked along the way. So I just kind of started to accumulate things and each coach tried to pick something that I liked or didn't like from them and, you know, kind of formed my own style.”

Army’s coaching strategies come down to communication. He communicates with his players consistently all game long. He speaks on his strategies on the bench. “Yeah, in-game, little things would just be, you know, the other day on Friday, we thought they were getting through the neutral zone fast, so we made a quick adjustment to cut a little slight difference to our neutral zone forechecks. We made a slight change to how we wanted to go about it, and I thought it really worked. I just kind of obviously encourage them as best I can and remind them too, if there's a mistake that's okay, we bounce back from that.”

Every team hopes for the play offs at the beginning of every season, and this year, it’s likely that Wheeling is nailing their ticket for postseason play. Army speaks on what his strategy is to get each and every player ready for the postseason. “This is a good time for that, you know, our roster has turned over so much that new guys are stepping up and in the playoffs, you don't know who's going to be out or not, and you need everyone to be ready to go. So I think the beauty of it is just making sure that everyone has seen every situation. So for example, oddly enough a little kid on the ice, just asked me, why did I pull the goalie twice? And down three one, you know, you can play it safe, but why play it safe when you can go after it? And on top of it, in the back of my mind it is like some of these guys didn't get six on five, so I want them to go through it so that way everyone has seen this when, and when games really matter at the end of the season or in playoffs. So everyone has experienced it, it's not something new and it's good in these tight games too, you know, and you don't wanna lose. Maybe you’re gripping the stick a little bit too tight, and so now you could, you know, moving forward. I have a little bit of freedom and I gotta just be, I gotta play loose. So easy experience I think it all matters.”

Being able to think on your feet and make the adjustments necessary in-game is a good quality of a coach. Army speaks on how he makes the quick thinking adjustments during the game. “Before the game, we have an idea like a couple of different things we might want to try. And then in game if something pops up, you know, just always trying to scan for you know, the tendencies and if there's something that maybe we didn't see that they're doing. For example, this team in the D zone was a lot tighter against us than we had seen in video. So, we made a couple adjustments to just go low to high and I thought it was effective for us tonight and in games we are just kind of always looking for something like that.”

Being in the minor leagues, coaches have to adjust to players being called up, suspended, being traded, or leaving to go overseas, or injuries. “Having gone through it as a player, you know that the ECHL level, your season is almost broken up into four teams and you have the first 20 games where your team is stocked full and you look at our team from then we had you we had Houde, Joshua, MacArthur. We had a an abundance of riches and then all of a sudden, things happen, trades and whatnot, and now all of a sudden you get to the second half, that's where where the second part team and we've kind of had like almost three teams in this span because how many injuries Wilkes had on D to then how many injuries we've had now. So you kind of roll with the punches and for me, the one beauty of having been in the ECHL for so long, is that if there is a curve ball in any day to day life, it's every day. Like it's not like, oh, we're expecting a fastball, we know what we're getting. There's a curve ball every day, in every sense, and so you gotta be ready to adjust on the fly, whether being in practice in the locker room or just in anything you have to be ready. So I think it's making sure the guys know like, hey, whatever happens, it's okay. We continue our mentality, and you just pass it to the next guy.”

-Sam Wismer/ Olde City Sports Network

Photo Credit: Stacy Grubich