enlarge Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Derek Army, left, facing off against old linemate Nate Gadbois, lived in Scarborough for three years when his father, Tim, was head coach of the Portland Pirates

enlarge Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Derek Army, now a junior playing center on the top line for Moses Brown of Providence, R.I., returned to the Portland Ice Arena on Wednesday to face his old team, Scarborough High, in the Maine High School Hockey Invitational. He scored twice in Moses Brown’s 4-2 loss to the Red Storm.

THE DEREK ARMY FILE

Junior center for Moses Brown (R.I.) School.

Has scored three goals in the Quakers' first four games.

Spent freshman year at Scarborough High.

His father, Tim, is the current Providence College coach and former Portland Pirates coach.

Helped Moses Brown win Rhode Island Division III boys' soccer championship.

"What do you want for Christmas?" Tremblay asked Army, a junior center on his team's top line.

Every gift Army inventoried to his coach had something to do with hockey.

"It's true," said Tim Army, Derek's father. "Everything Santa will bring is geared around hockey."

It's only fitting, given Derek's upbringing. In his second year at Moses Brown, a private school in Providence, R.I., Army is a product of zigzagging across the country and a product of the sport's pedigree. Army's father spent three seasons as coach of the Portland Pirates before taking over the Providence College program in 2005.

Two years ago, Army made Scarborough's varsity team as a ninth-grader and helped the Red Storm reach the Western Class A final. Wednesday, Army faced his old team on the first day of the Maine High School Hockey Invitational, scoring twice for Moses Brown in a 4-2 loss at the Portland Ice Arena.

"I've been excited for a while to come back and see my old team, especially to see everyone again," Army said. "It's disappointing to lose but it's fun to finally come out and play them."

Army lived in Maine from 2002 to 2005, the fourth of five moves his family made as his father pursued a career in coaching. Playing hockey was only natural for Army and his younger brother, Travis, but with Dad hobnobbing among the game's elite, it could have brought added pressure.

"With your dad as a coach, it can be a struggle growing up," Tremblay said. "But his dad is the type of person who said, 'Just be your own person.' "

Derek Army relished each move his family made, going from Rhode Island to Southern California and then to Maryland, before the Armys moved to Maine in 2002. Not only did his hockey IQ improve, so did his ability to interact with people.

"I think with all those moves, he knew how to come across to people," said Nate Gadbois, a sophomore forward for Scarborough and a teammate of Army's with Casco Bay Youth Hockey. "He knows how to treat his teammates and he knows how to act around the rink. He knows how to win games and how to keep himself in control on the ice. Me and Army, we always played on the same line so he'd go out and he always played to the next level. It made me want to compete that much more, to keep up with him when he was my teammate."

Army's knowledge of the sport came from dinner-table discussions and morning skates on the backyard pond, as well as the years he and his younger brother spent around college and professional programs.

"I learned the most about hockey from my dad," said Army, whose father was an assistant in the NHL for nine years before becoming the Pirates' head coach. "He knows so much about hockey and he's been around the game for so long. Same with my grandfather, too. They've all been around the game for a long time."

When his father was an assistant at Providence College, young Derek doled out meal money to players in the locker room. When his father was on Ron Wilson's staff with the Anaheim Ducks, Derek, Travis and their mother, Sue, brought dinner to the rink on nights when the coaches reviewed videotape. When his father was an assistant for the Washington Capitals, Derek Army watched the team's run to the Stanley Cup finals in 1998.

"They've grown up around the players," Tim Army said, "they've gotten to see guys like Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne, Wayne Gretzky, Adam Oates and Olaf Kolzig. It was a great education in the culture of the game."

But when Derek was 11, his family moved to Maine and settled in Scarborough as his father took his first head coaching job. The constant migration can wear on a person. Not Army, who is now 16.

"I love moving around," he said, "seeing new people, especially with my dad coaching."

Tim Army believes the nomadic lifestyle helped to shape his son's...