enlarge Photo by Michael York

Adam Baxter was someone Maine soccer coach Pat Laughlin had pegged as a future captain, and he was part of a bigger plan to turn the program around.

He grew up in a seaside town north of London, where soccer beckons from the street, the playground and everywhere a young man can put foot to ball to prove his worth.

Adam Baxter brought the rugged, intense style he learned as a youth to the soccer team at the University of Maine.

In one match last fall during his freshman season, he leaped headfirst to win a ball in the air, ramming into a player with three or four inches on him.

His head collided with his opponent's teeth.

Baxter, in his thick British accent, insisted he could continue playing. He couldn't, of course, and needed 12 staples to close the gash. Weeks later, when the wound had healed, Baxter hung the staples on his dorm room door in a plastic baggy with a note that read: "These were in my head."

"Like a badge of courage," said Maine soccer coach Pat Laughlin, with a faraway smile.

Memories like this one help ease the grief that still hangs heavy in Orono.

Baxter died five months ago from acute alcohol poisoning in the early morning hours of Nov. 24. He was in Portland, staying with a former teammate for the Thanksgiving holiday and had been drinking heavily. His blood alcohol level was 0.38.

He was 19 years old.

The death rocked the University's athletic community, bluntly serving as a reminder of the gravest consequences of alcohol abuse. It left his family and friends grief-stricken back home in England, and complicated the lives of two more who await trial on felony charges of supplying Baxter with alcohol.

Most harshly, it meant a tragic end for Anne and David Baxter's son, a globetrotter who had been to dozens of countries in his young life, taught soccer to underprivileged kids in Costa Rica, and who had a sense of humor that could crack up a carload of his teammates.

The Baxters declined an interview for this story. But those who know them say they remain devastated by the loss of their only son, who came to America last fall to chase his passion for soccer to another corner of the globe.

"You would never in a million years expect something bad to happen to a kid like that," said Baxter's teammate, Thomas McCole, a freshman midfielder from Toronto.

AGGRESSIVE, VOCAL AND POPULAR

When McCole met Baxter, the two formed an immediate connection. McCole has family from the United Kingdom and was able to weed through Baxter's thick accent with little trouble.

"When you got to know him he was full of energy," said McCole. "He told things how it was."

Baxter lived in Knox Hall on campus, the same dorm as McCole and fellow freshman Alex Rickett, a midfielder from Northville, Mich. The three became fast friends, and soon did almost everything together, traveling as a trio to practice, the dining hall or a friend's room.

On the field, Baxter's intensity commanded attention. He was one of the team's two central midfielders and was great in the air. He had a reputation of challenging for any ball, despite the odds.

"He had that English edge," said freshman back Brendan Rogers. "He played like 'no one is going to take the ball off me, and I'm never going to lose a tackle.' Rough."

Baxter was aggressive and vocal, sometimes shouting instructions in British slang he'd later have to explain to a confused teammate. He was 5-foot-9, 165 pounds -- but played like a bigger man.

"It was everything that comes with growing up playing soccer in the streets," McCole said.

At season's end, Baxter was named to the America East All-Rookie team, the first player from Maine in four years to crack the list.

Laughlin, a first-year coach at Maine, recruited Baxter last spring on the recommendation of Mark Hallam, a former player of his at Champlain College who is from Skegness, England, Baxter's hometown.

He was someone Laughlin had pegged as a future captain, and was part of a bigger plan to turn the program around...