As students at Bangor High were excused from school early last week because of midterms, some of the Ram cheerleaders had an idea.

Instead of going straight home last Monday, the girls called a team practice – without telling coach Stephanie Crane – and gathered in the school cafeteria to work on some of their choreography.

Later that night, they returned to the school for their regularly scheduled practice with Crane.

“They did that all on their own,” Crane said Sunday, two days after the Rams won their first Eastern Maine Class A championship in eight years. “… It showed, too. We went up two points in motion and timing.”

The regional title Bangor earned Friday night has been the culmination of months of practice. It also gives them a berth to the Feb. 8 state championship competition at the Bangor Auditorium (the top four teams at the Eastern Maine competition advance to states).

Bangor won its last Eastern Maine crown in 1995. The Rams have been the runner-up behind Brewer for the past two years.

Bangor had a 78 in the first round of Friday’s competition and improved to an 81 in the final round.

The success of this year’s squad – the Rams also won the Big East Conference championship two weeks ago – has a lot to do with senior leadership and Bangor captains Jenn Towne and Danielle Thompson.

“When you have 16 girls you’re bound to have frustration but by far every girl has said this has been their favorite season,” Crane said. “We’re having fun and when you’re winning it’s even better.”

Crane doesn’t have many seniors, but she’s got plenty of experienced athletes.

“I have more juniors than I do anything else, but a couple of them have been on the team since they were freshmen,” she said. “It’s a really talented team.”

The talent level has allowed the Rams to try more stunts and improve their transitions between stunts. Tumbling is also a big key, and Bangor was graded out of five points, the highest level of difficulty, in that category.

“You really only have five or six stunts that you can do, but it’s really how you incorporate it and transition from one to the next,” Crane said. “We’ve got the tumbling and that really helps a lot.”