Elly Callihan is set to enter her final basketball season at Berry College, and she is ready to leave her mark in the Vikings’ record book.
Callihan, a 2022 Gilmer High graduate, has gone from a capable contributor her freshman season to one of Berry’s top players over the last two as she closes in on 1,000 career points. Callihan was named to the Southern Athletic Association’s academic honor roll the past two seasons while studying special education.
She was one of four returning starters for Berry last season, and they received a boost from a new player. However, the season began to unravel in the final months, and Berry’s year ended in the SAA’s quarterfinals.
“We started out the season really strong and had a lot of upperclassmen coming back who were familiar with college ball,” Callihan said. “We had a really good freshman (Briaiah Lewis) who came in and won rookie of the year (for the conference), and she kept us in a lot of games. We had three ACL tears at practice before the season ever started, and they were three of our big players.
“Toward the end, team chemistry kind of started disappearing. We had some seniors who were ready for the season to be over. My coach (Thomas Johnson) always says, ‘If you’re not all in, then you’re in the way.’ We had a lot of people who were becoming in the way.”
Berry wrapped up the season with an 18-8 record and was 8-4 versus conference opponents. Callihan started 25 of 26 games and averaged 10.1 points and seven rebounds. She led the SAA in steals during the regular season and finished with 60. She noted that while she starts at forward, most of her time is spent outside of the post offensively.
“We do a lot of ball screening in our offense where I will set a screen and then either roll or pop (shoot), but I don’t roll, I pop,” Callihan said. “I do get the ball a lot on the perimeter and that’s why my three-point game has really become part of my game since I’ve been in college. I feel more like a guard than a post.
“I like that he gives me freedom to do what I want with the ball, but I don’t like that teams know what we’re doing all the time, and it’s becoming easy to guard. I feel like I’m not getting as many opportunities where if we ran different sets, I would get more. But I do like the freedom of the offense.”
Callihan scored a season-high 21 points versus Milsaps College. She drained four of her 22 three pointers on the year versus Hendrix College. For her efforts, she received a SAA honorable mention. It marked the third time she was recognized by the conference.
The honor comes after Callihan attempted 61 fewer shots than her sophomore year.
“I think I had a good season,” she said. “The honorable mention really isn’t what I wanted. I was second-team all-conference the year before. I didn’t average as many points, but we did have a really big guard game where our guards wanted a lot of the points. I didn’t get as many touches to score, but I ended the season really strong. I was in double digits over the last four or five games.”
Callihan’s second-team all-conference selection in 2023-24 saw her average 12 points and seven rebounds per game. She started all 27 games and also snatched 52 steals, blocked 16 shots and recorded six double-doubles.
For her freshman campaign, Callihan earned her spot and was in the starting lineup for 12 of 21 games. She averaged 8.6 points for the year, and versus Birmingham Southern College Feb. 5, she scored a season-high 23 and collected 16 boards. She was celebrated at the end of the season with an all-conference honorable mention.
“My defense is one of the biggest things that’s changed since I’ve been in college,” Callihan said. “When I got here, I was not a defensive player, but my coach told me when I came, ‘If you don’t play defense, you don’t play.’ I really had to evolve my defensive game and that took going in individually and working on closing out for an hour straight or staying in front of someone for 30 minutes. In those workouts, I learned how to use my length. It’s helped a lot with deflections and steals.”
Callihan is currently 89 rebounds shy of Berry’s record. She is 233 points away from scoring 1,000 for her career.
“The rebounding record is a big goal of mine for next year,” she said. “I’d also like to reach 1,000 points. Right now, I’m at 767, and that’s another goal for next season. I’d like to get on the first-team all-conference so that’s big. Obviously, I want to win a conference championship for my team. That would be awesome. I’m excited for next season.”
Berry will replace three starters but has a “deep bench,” according to Callihan. She also spoke highly of recruits coming into the program and is ready to leave her mark at Berry.
“One thing I really want to focus on my senior year is leadership. I want to make it a good year and go out on a good note,” Callihan said.
“Basketball has been one of the biggest influences on my life. It teaches you about how to work with people, how to work as a team, how to do things you don’t think you can do, and then it teaches you discipline. You get up and do it even when you don’t want to. All of those things are so important past basketball. These types of lessons have helped prepare me for life.”
Berry’s season begins Nov. 7 at Huntingdon College.