Aug 19, 2022 5 min read

With Steelers’ training camp now in the books, it’s pretty obvious some assumptions made about the team heading into this season without Ben Roethlisberger have been a little off.

The biggest one is that the Steelers are going to become a run-heavy offense.

The Steelers threw the ball 61.8 percent of the time last season. Only Tampa Bay threw the ball more often.

Just because Roethlisberger is retired doesn’t necessarily mean the Steelers are simply going to lean heavily on Najee Harris and the running game.

They might not throw the ball nearly 62 percent of the time, but they also didn’t give Diontae Johnson a two-year, $36.7-million contract extension and use high draft picks on George Pickens, Pat Freiermuth and Chase Claypool the past three seasons to not use them.

“They can say what they want,” Johnson said. “They’re not here working with us every day. I don’t listen to the outside stuff. We know the game plan. They don’t Hearing people say it’s going to be run heavy, it’s not. Sit back and watch the game. We’ll let the game speak for itself. We’ll let that do the talking for us.”

Johnson thinks the Steelers’ passing game with those aforementioned targets can be special.

“We’re a young group. But we’re guys with experience other than GP,” he said, referring to Pickens. “It’s his rookie year. He doesn’t play like a rookie. He plays like he’s been in the league five or six years already.

“I know Coach (Mike Tomlin) said defense wins games, but I feel like the offense can win games just as well. We’ve got enough talent. … Us four for five out there as a unit, whether we’re young or not as experienced, that doesn’t matter. We can play.”

They can. This offense might be better than advertised. Pundits are saying this will be a bottom five offense in the league. It sure didn’t look like it in Week 1 of the preseason – even without many of the stars playing. A good showing in Week 2 of the preseason might start to turn some heads.

• It was another strong run for the Washington County representative in the Pony World Series last week as Tyler Rubasky’s team made it to the semifinals of the tournament.

That’s two years in a row now that Washington County has reached the semifinals. And as the Founder’s League, from which the players on the team are chosen, continues to grow, things are only going to get better.

This year’s tournament was well attended and there was a huge buzz around the team, which is what the goal was when the Founder’s League was created out of the initial merger between Washington Youth Baseball and Canon-McMillan Youth Baseball at the Pony level.

Now, with Chartiers-Houston, Fort Cherry, Burgettstown and Avella’s Pony organizations all being fully eligible for the team in 2023, the goal isn’t just to go into the tournament and win a game or two any longer. The goal is to win the entire tournament.

Washington County has shown it has good baseball and can compete against the top organizations from around the world.

• It should also be noted that while those aforementioned youth baseball organizations are currently the only ones included in the Founder’s League, players from everywhere in the county, with the exception of Peters Township, are eligible to try out for the Washington County team.

Washington Youth Baseball was granted the McGuffey, Bentworth, California, Beth-Center, Charleroi and Ringgold areas by PONY Inc., two years ago because those areas no longer play sanction Pony League baseball.

So, if players from those areas want to be eligible to try out for the world series team when they are 14, they must join Washington Youth Baseball – or one of the other organizations from which the team is chosen via a tryout, by their 12-year-old year.

• The Founder’s League would love to include Peters Township in the mix, and discussions have been had in the past, only to fall apart at the last minute. Perhaps that will change in the near future.

But a countywide team of players that potentially includes players from every school district could compete against anyone. In fact, this year, because the Founder’s League included 15 Pony teams, for the first time a second true All-Star team was chosen from the more than 40 players who tried out.

That team, managed by Dave Stevens of Burgettstown, entered the Host Zone tournament and was very competitive.

• I ran into former Peters Township and Canon-McMillan boys basketball coach Rick Bell at training camp last week.

He’s enjoying life as he enters his second season as an assistant coach on Trinity High School graduate Dan Burt’s staff for the Duquesne women’s basketball team. It also helps that his son, R.J., is a graduate assistant with the team. R.J. Bell is a Canon-McMillan graduate and played at Geneva.

Former Waynesburg head coach Frank Ferraro, who also coached in high school at Burgettstown and South Fayette, is an assistant on the team.

That’s a heck of a coaching staff with strong area ties.