Butler County sports will lose a good man on Friday.

That's the day Moniteau High School athletic director John Stoughton will work his last day of running the Warriors' athletic department after seven years on the job. He is moving on to a new endeavor outside of the school district.

Stoughton followed a tough act in replacing longtime Moniteau athletic director Jim Metz and has been very easy to work with.

He always kept we at the Butler Eagle in the loop, whether it be about an athlete signing for college, event postponements or cancellations, etc. And John has always made himself available for an interview on any sports topic, controversial or otherwise.

Most impressive was the way he and Moniteau went out of their way to honor longtime, dedicated high school athletic officials. They recognized Art Monteleone and Steve Ward for 50 years of dedicated service earlier this year.

High school athletic directors do not get monetarily compensated for all of the work they do. That would be impossible.

Besides their daytime responsibilities at school, they attend and oversee athletic events after school, often times on the road or well into the evening.

Stoughton was as dedicated to his job as anybody. He indicated he will miss working with and watching the kids compete.

That's not surprising. These athletic directors put in all of those hours because they care about the kids.

We'll miss you, John.

Thanks for a job well-done.

A life well-lived

Jean Heard, 81, of New Kensington died recently. The impact she made on Knoch High School will be felt for a long time.

Heard belongs to the Slippery Rock University Hall of Fame as she was a field hockey and basketball player, along with being an avid golfer.

She is credited with starting the girls volleyball team at Knoch High School. That program has gone on to ample success at the WPIAL and state level.

A teacher at Knoch for 30 years, Heard's impact there was recognized through her induction into the school's Hall of Fame in 2019.

Steeler schedule

No matter how you think the Pittsburgh Steelers will fare in 2021, the NFL and TV networks still believe one thing about them.

They are as popular as ever.

The Steelers will be playing five games in prime time this year — two Sunday nighters, two Monday nighters and one Thursday nighter.

They host Chicago and Cleveland on Monday nights, host Seattle on a Sunday night, travel to the Los Angeles Chargers and Minnesota for Sunday and Thursday night games, respectively.

Guaranteed, all of those games will do well in the ratings nationwide.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle