However, football is where the 6-foot-5, 215-pound senior will continue his athletic career in college.

McElhinny recently signed a letter of intent to accept a football scholarship to Robert Morris University of the Division I-AA Northeast Conference. An all-conference outside linebac-ker/receiver, McElhinny was recruited to play tight end for the Colonials.

Several district colleges at the Division II and III levels show-ed interest in McElhinny for football and basketball, most notably Washington & Jefferson and Waynesburg. Division 1-AA Iona College of New Rochelle, N.Y. also showed football interest in the tall and talented receiver.

"I like the business program [at Robert Morris] and they have a new stadium [Joe Walton Stadium which opened in 2005] with new [practice] facilities," said McElhinny who caught 19 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns last fall.

"I think they want me to play at 235 or 240 [pounds]," McElhinny said. "They seem to throw to the tight end.

"I think their leading receiver last season [Jarvis Powers] was a tight end. I'm not sure how many [receptions] he had, but I know he caught a lot of passes."

Powers led RMU with 31 catches for 321 yards and five touchdowns. Powers was one of four Robert Morris players with at least 20 receptions, but was listed as the only tight end among that group.

McElhinny helped lead SF to a 5-4 football record, 5-3 in the Class AA Century Conference. The Lions finished fourth in the division, one slot shy of a playoff berth.

In basketball, McElhinny finished the regular season with 30 points during an 81-36 home win against Fort Cherry last Friday. This gave him 1,001 career points to become the sixth player in South Fayette boys' hoop history to reach the milestone.

"I really like basketball, but I was looking for [athletic] scholarship money and I seemed better suited for football [when it came to getting a full scholarship]," McElhinny said.

While football is in McElhinny's long-range future, basketball remains at the forefront for him and his Lions teammates. WPIAL playoff-pairings were supposed to be announced Tuesday night.

"We could be sitting here with a prettier record [than 14-9], but we have played a hard schedule and done a pretty good job with it," Lions basketball coach Rich Bonnaure said.

"I'm proud of the kids. Sean has had a great season and for the last few weeks I've seen him take it to another level. Defensively, he's starting to play at the level we want him to play at and offensively, he's been unstoppable, inside and outside."

As the third-place team in its section, South Fayette most likely got a difficult first-round draw. However, the Lions appear ready for any challenge.

Eight of their nine losses have occurred by single-digits despite playing a rugged non-section schedule that included Quad-A Upper St. Clair (a 44-40 overtime loss), Section 5-AA champion Washington (a 59-42 road win) and perennial AA powerhouse Beaver Falls (a 63-59 loss at the prestigious Blackhawk tournament).

South Fayette also lost a pair of close games to Carlynton, the champion Section 3-AA where the Lions compete.

While Bonnaure voiced enthusiasm for his college future, he believes McElhinny should consider walking on to the RMU basketball team.

"I think Robert Morris would be doing a good thing if they let him try basketball," Bonnaure said. "I don't know what Coach [Mark] Schmidt [the RMU head coach] would think, but I called there a few times.

"We had [coaches] from different levels [of college basketball] looking at him. I think this is the school he wants to go to first of all, so it's worked out really well for him. I'm happy that he's happy and that he's got his college plans figured out."

McElhinny admits that under the right circumstance, he would consider giving basketball a shot in college, but only after he has established himself with the Colonial football program.

"If they wanted to give me a shot, I'd try it to see if it would work," said McElhinny who would have to adjust to being more of a role-player on the court in college.

"I can drive to the basket and hit the 3[-pointer] and pretty much do a little bit of everything."