Answer: All of the above. Check all three of those boxes.
Thrash, a senior on the Shoreham-Wading River High School competitive cheerleading team, also competes as an independent gymnast with William Floyd and is a budding firefighter.
The Shoreham resident has a background in gymnastics that dates back to when she was 5 years old. Because SWR doesn’t have a gymnastics team, she has competed independently. High school gymnastics is slated to start its shortened season March 1. The cheerleading season began Feb. 1.
But what really may raise eyebrows is Thrash’s involvement as a probationary member of Rocky Point Fire Department Shoreham Company 3.
A return to the mat features virtual competitions for varsity cheerleaders
Cheerleaders can be of good cheer these days. They finally have something to cheer about: a season.
That appeared less and less likely as the weeks of the high school winter sports season whittled away. And then came the salvation high-risk winter sports such as competitive cheerleading could barely have still hoped for with the authorization to proceed, first from New York State and then Suffolk County.
Cheerleading has a compressed season that will run to Feb. 27. Practices began this week.
Shoreham-Wading River’s Grace McMillan, who captains the Wildcats along with fellow seniors Brooke Hackal and Caitlin Thrash, spoke about how nice it will be to have a sense of closure. “If we didn’t have this year, it would have felt incomplete,” said McMillan.