The University of Maine cheerleading squad will return to competition after a long hiatus next month and is hoping to bring a national title to Orono.

The Black Bears will head to Daytona Beach, Fla., for the National Cheering Association’s championships on April 4-5.

“This is the first time in 10 years or so that a UMaine team has attempted to compete,” said cheerleader Aaron Hermes, who pointed out that a number of factors contributed to that.

Chief among those, according to Hermes, is that top-notch cheerleaders didn’t have much interest in joining a UMaine team that would never get the chance to perform on its own, instead of just as an adjunct to a football or basketball contest.

That took its toll, Hermes said.

“The quality of the squad was pretty abysmal for awhile,” Hermes said.

But Hermes said the perseverance of a core group of cheerleaders helped increase the talent pool and put the Black Bears back in a competitive frame of mind.

In November, the squad submitted a tape to NCA officials.

“We said, ‘We’ve got the people. We can do it if we set our minds for it and go for it,'” Hermes said.

Shortly after Thanksgiving the team received word that it had been rated third in the small coed division, in which squads may have up to 20 members, with as many as four men. A bid to the nationals was the reward.

The catch? Only the top-rated team from the University of Houston received a “paid bid” to the event. The other 10-12 schools will have to pay for their own trips.

And because cheerleading is not an NCAA-sanctioned sport and is not fully funded by the university’s athletic department, the Black Bears are busy fund raising.

“They aren’t paying for our travel, but they do pay for our uniforms,” said Hermes, who estimated that the Bears are about $3,000 short of their $15,000 goal.

Anybody interested in donating to the travel fund can call coach Lisa Ackley at 581-4849.