Elly Cash set a simple resolution for the New Year.

“Be my best,” the Wellsville-Middletown junior said. “Don’t worry about what the other teams think.”

Despite her team losing to South Callaway 52-24 on Jan. 2 on the road, Cash got off to a flying start in the 2026 portion of the schedule. She scored a team-high 11 points, including nine in the second half. 

Cash said her mission at every game is to come out and play with intensity.

“I love being the hustle player,” she said. “ I’m mostly on the floor more than I am on my feet, but I love being out there running my butt off since track kind of helps out a little bit. It’s nice being the hustle player, giving my team the offense and looking to score to help everybody else out.”

Cash is a three-sport athlete. She was an all-state medalist in both 100 and 200 for the W-M track team as a sophomore last year. She played softball for the Tigers for the last three years. This winter, she’s back for her third season for the W-M girls basketball team, which lost two games in a row after storming off to a 4-1 start.

Cash and the Tigers lost to a South Callaway squad that hit eight 3-pointers and snapped a three-game losing streak. 

“We knew they were going to come out shooting 3s,” Cash said. “We know their play style. We started out in a 2-3 and it didn’t go so well, so we tried to switch it to a 3-2. It still didn’t work. They still kind of killed us from the 3. We went man after a while and that helped shut them down a little bit. We changed our offense. We got some points to minimize the score difference.”

Before she joined the W-M squad in her freshman year, Cash was a standout for the junior high team. When she was in eighth grade, she scored all of the team’s 17 points in its regular season finale against St. Brendan Parish.

When she was a freshman, Cash helped the Tigers finish 13-13. Last year, she ended her sophomore season on a high note, she scored 14 points against Community R-6 in a Class 1, District 9 quarterfinal game.

Cash was looking forward to coming back for another year to the girls basketball team this winter since practices began in November. She is one of three returning players from last year’s squad that won six games.

“I was super excited,” Cash said. “I was kind of bummed because we lost some seniors last year, but I had great confidence in the freshmen who came up and they’re working really hard. I’m really proud of them. I’m super excited to finish out the season. We have a lot more games left, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Cash is playing on a W-M team that has three freshmen, returning players Helanea McKenzie and Aubrey Harmon and foreign exchange student Mia Romecka. McKenzie is the team’s only senior and Harmon returned to the team in the contest against South Callaway after missing the first six games due to meniscus issues.

Cash said she has high hopes for her team for ‘26.

“I love the team,” she said. “I’m super excited for the rest of the season.”