‘Big Ben’ Coaches Little Kids at Annual Youth Football Camp

On Tuesday, it wasn’t Steelers’ Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s injured knee that ached — it was his shoulder.

Even "Big Ben" can get a little achey from passing a football to all 508 kids attending his youth camp at Seneca Valley High School this week.

“It feels like a lot more kids,” Roethlisberger said with a chuckle. “But it’s still a lot of fun.”

The two-day camp, organized by ProCamps Worldwide and sponsored by Giant Eagle and Fifth Third Bank, was the sixth annual Ben Roethlisberger football camp and the third hosted by Seneca Valley High School.

The whistles of 50 local football coaches blared above the noise of the excited children, whose ages ranged from 7-14. 

The NexTier Stadium was chaotic as the campers, outfitted in matching  white T-shirts, ran between stations to learn different football skills.

Roethlisberger roamed from group to group coaching them one on one, hopping on a blue Schwinn bicycle to ride between the two fields.

It wasn’t all work and no play — some campers danced to the DJ's music, rolled around on the turf or made goofy faces for the news cameras.

Roethlisberger did stop to have some fun of his own.

He pranked campers by spraying them with a water bottle and hiding behind a group of coaches. When the campers caught sight of the quarterback they shouted “Ben!” and dissolved into giggles.

Parents also got involved, calling out encouragements from the sidelines, but one dad cheered his sons on from across the ocean.

From his post in Afghanistan, Mark Ziegler watched a Youtube video of his son, 14-year-old Andrew Ziegler, catching a 50-yard pass thrown by Roethlisberger — in what the quarterback himself described as a “NFL style catch.”

In a post on Roethlisberger’s official website, the boy’s mother, Dena Ziegler, wrote that the boy’s father watched the video, “at least a hundred times.” 

Both Ziegler sons attended the camp as a birthday present from their father.

On Tuesday Roethlisberger pulled the brothers from the crowd of children and threw a 50-yard pass to each. 

The crowd went wild when both brothers successfully caught the ball, and Roethlisberger hoisted one brother onto his shoulder for a victory lap.

“It’ll be a sports center top 10 I think,” Roethlisberger said.