They try to keep their thoughts on their own teams, playoff games and possibly a WPIAL championship. But Norwin's Mike Shanahan and Central Catholic's Tino Sunseri also have college recruiting on their minds a lot these days.

The college situations for Shanahan and Sunseri have changed drastically in recent weeks. Shanahan, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound senior receiver/defensive back, decided this summer he wanted to play basketball in college, turning down football scholarship offers from West Virginia, Stanford, Georgia Tech and a few others.

But Shanahan has changed his mind and now thinks he might want to play football in college. Pitt offered him a scholarship a few weeks ago. West Virginia also is recruiting him again for football.

Meanwhile, Sunseri, a 6-1, 200-pound quarterback, made a verbal commitment in the spring to the University of Louisville. But he also had a change of heart in the past few weeks and reopened his recruiting. Pitt and Boston College recently offered scholarships to Sunseri, and he plans to make an official visit to Boston College.

"The recruiting is on your mind during the week," Shanahan said. "But whenever the kickoff comes Friday night, the recruiting stuff just goes all away. You don't think of anything else but the game and the task at hand."

Norwin (7-3) meets McKeesport (9-1) in a Class AAAA quarterfinal at 7:30 p.m. today at West Mifflin. Central Catholic (10-0) plays Bethel Park (7-3) in another quarterfinal at 7:30 p.m. today at the Wolvarena in Turtle Creek.

Sunseri tries to keep the recruiting out of his mind until after games. He doesn't talk to any college coaches during the week, waiting until after the game Friday or Saturdays. He also has two cell phones, for a reason.

"I leave one at home all the time," Sunseri said. "That's the one most [college] teams have. That way, I make sure I have total focus when I'm around our team or watching film with our team."

Shanahan has made three official visits this fall to Akron, Bucknell and Vermont for basketball. All offered him basketball scholarships. He plans to make two visits for football after the season.

"I still don't know what I'm going to do," Shanahan said. "It's not official that I'm playing football, but I'm kind of leaning towards it.

"I've been having a lot of fun this year in football. It's kind of been a little different, just being on a winning team. It's made football a lot better. And whenever I think about it, [playing football] might be one of the better decisions for me and my future. I kind of just had a sudden change of heart."

Sunseri still might decide to attend Louisville because the Cardinals are still recruiting him. Seniors can't sign a binding letter of intent with a college until February.

"With how early I committed, I just want to make sure it's the right thing," Sunseri said. "I'm going to compare Louisville with a couple other programs and make sure it's the right fit for me."

Central Catholic is the No. 1 seed for the Class AAAA playoffs.

"To be honest, I think if we just keep going with what we've been doing every week, do the little things right, then we'll be fine," Sunseri said.

Other Class AAAA games

• Quarterback Tom Fulton returned to the Penn Hills starting lineup last week after missing a game with a concussion. He figures to be one of the key players when Penn Hills (6-4) takes on North Allegheny (10-0) in another quarterfinal game at 7:30 p.m. today at North Hills.

North Allegheny has a defense that has allowed the fewest points (9.3 a game) in Class AAAA this season.

• In the other quarterfinal, defending WPIAL champion Upper St. Clair (7-3) meets Gateway (9-1) at 7:30 p.m. at North Allegheny.

Gateway is a different team than it was the first half of the season. After giving up 36 points to Norwin, the Gators changed defenses, playing different styles depending on the opponent.