Assistant coach Jarnell Bonds (left) and head coach Lura Fleece celebrate the Terps’ national championship.

The tears rolled down competitive cheer coach Lura Fleece’s eyes when she knew her team could knock off five-time consecutive champion Louisville. It was time for a new program on the block.

That wasn’t yesterday in Daytona Beach, Fla., when the Terps won their first national championship since 1999 – although Fleece also cried then too – it was another competition a week earlier in Ocean City, Md., when the Terps pulled off an almost flawless routine.

But many could see the Terps’ title coming even well before then. What culminated in a near-perfect 9.31 national championship score began three years earlier when the Terps became the nation’s first-ever varsity competitive cheer team.

That’s when the Terps gained a distinct advantage over teams such as Louisville, who split their season between cheerleading competitions and cheering for the school’s football team.

The Terps are the new example of how a team, armed with scholarships, trainers, facilities and an academic support staff, can lure in the nation’s top cheer talents. More than that, they’re an example of likely what it’s going to take to win a competitive cheer national championship from here on.

“This is the first step in many steps,” Fleece said. “We are now going to be the new Louisville, where everybody is aiming for us. … I think this win will help legitimize what we’ve done here.”

Fleece won’t return next year because her husband accepted a job in Florida, but Fleece will leave the program at the forefront of competitive cheer.

“I don’t want to leave. It’s something I hold dear to my heart,” Fleece said, trying to swallow her emotions. “I feel like I’ve worked very hard to get it where it is. It’s in excellent hands, and it kind of runs itself now. This was my life mission.”

Fleece mission started long ago when, after leading the Spirit Squad for 11 years, the Terps finally gained varsity status largely because of the campaigning of her and Athletics Director Deborah Yow.

From that point on, Fleece had the power to attract athletes who wanted to focus more on their sport than cheer for another. Fleece now has 12 full scholarships which she divides among her 32 team members.

Much of the team is lead by freshman and sophomores who were drawn to the varsity status and financial support. Sophomore team captain Olivia Odom, a Florida native, said she never would have come to the Terps had they not been recognized as a varsity team.

“I can be treated like an athlete here,” Odom said. “I could use my abilities and go into competition. A lot of schools only go to meets at the end of the year.”

While many teams were cheering for touchdowns, the Terps had their focus on only one thing – a national championship. Louisville, for example, competed in only one other Div. 1 All-Girls tournament this year. The Terps competed in 11 events this season and could constantly practice for the 2-minute, 15 second routine, giving them much more floor experience than the 28 teams in the championships.

“My very first year as a freshman, it was up in the air,” Odom said of the Terps’ advantage. “This year I felt like we definitely had an advantage. We have all the experience, all the talent. I felt like we won this in practice.”

Fleece said the Terps certainly had more of a chance in one respect, but that by being an official NCAA team, they also had many more rules to follow. She said other teams don’t have academic standards that need to be met and could even be using players with very few credits or that have already graduated, because there aren’t extensive roster checks.

But being able to tell recruits they were going to join a legitimate, university-supported program gave the Terps the ultimate advantage. Fleece mined the nation’s finest talent, women who were used to winning such competitions.

“Just to see talent wise over the past three years, we have such competitors on the team and people who are mentally focussed,” said senior Jennifer Carr, who was one of the original team members who joined when Fleece came to the Spirit Squad and asked who wanted to play varsity.

“Everybody is just driven towards that one goal.”

That goal, from season’s start in April, was to take down Louisville in the process of winning national championship. Last year, the Terps’ score of 9.01 placed second behind the Cardinals’ 9.20. Fleece compared Louisville to Duke in men’s basketball, saying, “You know they’re good, but, God, do they get all the breaks.”

But the Terps weren’t shaken by Louisville’s dominance any longer. With a Florida crowd that openly showed their support for a new cheer champion and riding confidence from the previous weekend’s success, Fleece said the Terps entered with more arrogance than nervousness.

“Once we got to Daytona everybody knew we could do it,” Carr said. “It was just about getting it done. We were a little nervous, but we knew we were about to do something great.”

The Terps executed almost a flawless meet, getting only a 0.05 point deduction from their 9.36 raw score. Louisville was penalized 0.2 points for two tumbling touch downs (basically meaning they touched the ground when they weren’t supposed to) which hurt their 9.47 raw score. The Terps went before Louisville this year because they didn’t win the preliminaries, but once their score was released, the crowd gave a standing ovation.

They knew it would be enough to make the Terps champions.

“It’s almost like disbelief. It’s like a dream come true,” Fleece said. “To me it’s like I won a million dollars. If it’s between winning a milion dollars or beating Louisviile, I’d say beat Louisville. We were just so passionate, so happy. All the hard work and time and dedication paid off.”

Carr, Odom and Fleece expressed their hope that more teams will move to the varsity level to even out the playing field. Because as of now, the youthful Terps are on top and don’t appear to be moving any time soon.

“I’m really hoping that it will catch fire on other teams as well and make it a sport,” Carr said. “Being a varsity sport does win national championships. While we don’t cheer at games you get to win things for yourself.”

Contact reporter Ryan Mink at sports@dbk.umd.edu.