One year after a phenomenal sophomore season on the Bangor High School boys swimming team, Scott Loukes returned to practice with the Rams for his junior year.

But for the first time in his life, Loukes found he couldn’t focus on swimming.

He could swim his workout and do the regular things, and the team was the same, for the most part.

The problem was Loukes’ whole world had changed. The Husson College pool wasn’t where he wanted to be anymore.

A few weeks before that 2000-01 season started, Loukes’ mother, Judith, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Scott’s father, Richard, is a New Jersey-based pilot for Continental Airlines. His two older brothers, Norm and Nick, were in college.

All of a sudden, Scott was the man around the house.

Loukes, now 18 and the coach of the Brewer High School boys junior varsity soccer team, left public school as a 16-year-old to be home-schooled and take on the huge responsibilities that come with caring for a cancer patient.

“There wasn’t really a whole lot of time to think of it in that way at the time,” said Loukes, a tall, striking, soft-spoken Glenburn resident. “Things needed to be done, so I did them. Looking back now I feel it was more responsibility than I realized at the time.”

He also made a lot of sacrifices, including dropping off the swimming team one year after winning a state championship in the 100-yard butterfly and helping Bangor to the team title.

Judith Loukes didn’t survive her cancer fight, but in her life and death her youngest son grew up, and was inspired to return to swimming.

Loukes rejoined the Bangor High team for the 2001-02 season as a senior. He got back into shape and regained his joy for the sport. The Rams won another state championship.

“It wasn’t something she said to me, but I felt I left my swimming career in a bad spot,” Loukes said. “I had some times I wanted to do and I wanted to finish my career. I wanted my mother to see me finish.”

Clear decisions

Early in his junior year, Scott Loukes felt high school wasn’t working for him. Jack Brookings, his best friend, was being home-schooled by his mother, Jeanne. Judith Loukes, who had taught special education at Bangor High, agreed to guide her son.

Late that fall Judith woke one morning with a lump in her breast the size of an orange, Jeanne Brookings said. Scott’s decision to stay home became even clearer.

“I wasn’t learning in school. I wasn’t there when I was there,” he said. “At the same time I was having to take care of my mom. … At the point that I decided to do it she could teach me but she just couldn’t put the effort into it that she wanted to. She was just real tired all the time.”

Scott Loukes approached Jeanne Brookings, who agreed to be his home-schooling teacher.

Scott lived a double life in the weeks that followed. His days revolved around Judith’s well-being. Down time and evenings were for studying.

Loukes would start his day at 6 a.m., cooking breakfast and making sure Judith was comfortable. He tried to cook good food for her, making soups and stews. He juiced beets, carrots, celery, any vegetable he could think of, because his mother couldn’t keep much down at times.

When Judith napped, Scott studied. When she was awake, the two watched movies or talked. He massaged her sore muscles.

His mom was in bed by 9 o’clock most nights. Loukes studied for the rest of the evening, often staying up late to take advantage of the quiet time while Judith was asleep.

Loukes did a lot of schoolwork on his own, but every Monday he met with Jeanne and Jack Brookings at the Bangor Public Library.

Richard Loukes took a leave of absence from Continental in the winter. Scott went to a few Bangor swimming practices, mostly pushed by his parents and Bangor coach Phil Emery. But he knew where he wanted to be, and it wasn’t in a pool.

“I think everyone wanted me to swim because they thought it would be good for me to get my mind off things,” Loukes said. “But I decided it wouldn’t be good for me. My dad was going to be there to help but he needed the support just as much as my mom did.”

Meanwhile, Judith Loukes had gone through chemotherapy to destroy the cancer. But the side effects were so devastating that the family decided to seek treatment elsewhere.

In January 2001 the family rented a motor home and drove to Wisconsin, where Richard Loukes has friends in the Cheyenne Indian community. Richard, Judith and Scott spent about 11/2 months on the road.

Scott watched and learned in Wisconsin. He found himself interested in the sweat ceremonies and herbal cures. For a while, the alternative treatments worked for Judith.

“After that trip she was really feeling good and it seemed like she was going to get better,” Scott said. “She was starting to walk by herself, go to the bathroom by herself, that sort of stuff.”

But in April, Judith broke some ribs in a fall and struggled with her health afterward. She died the morning of June 4, 2001.

“It was hard. It was real hard,” Scott said. “It was just great times and horrible times – there were times where it felt like it brought me closer to my parents. It did bring me closer to my parents. My dad and I were always there right together, making every decision for her between the two of us.”

A phenomenal athlete

Scott Loukes first came into Phil Emery’s life when Loukes and his brothers were much younger. All three boys took swimming lessons at the Bangor YMCA, and Emery was running the summer program.

“I kind of remember him back then with a big grin on his face,” Emery said. “At some point Norm went to basketball and Nick went to basketball and they always claim Scott was the best basketball player of the group. But he never could be the basketball player that he was the swimmer. He was and is a phenomenal athlete.”

In the months after his mother died, Loukes thought about the upcoming school year. He knew he didn’t want to return to Bangor High because the home-schooling suited him. But he couldn’t shake his desire to swim again.

Loukes called Emery and they met several times, including a breakfast at Governor’s Restaurant.

Emery was unsure. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, and he worried Loukes would have trouble keeping his focus.

Loukes put the coach’s mind at ease.

“When he came out for the team his senior year, we talked about a few things,” Emery recalled. “He said, ‘Coach, I’m here to swim. I’ve got some unfinished business to take care of.’ I remember that word for word.”

Loukes got back into the water when high school practices started in November. But he hadn’t exercised regularly in a year and was, he admitted, in the worst physical shape of his life.

There were a few early bumps along the way. In December Loukes was involved in a car accident that left him with a slight concussion and held him out of a few practices. He also developed shoulder problems that would keep him from swimming the butterfly.

But Loukes’ natural ability took over. His times improved enough to make him one of the top-ranked swimmers in the state.

Judith Loukes had been an ardent swimming fan – really a fan of whatever her boys did. Jeanne Brookings attended several meets that year so Scott could have someone in the stands.

The Rams went on to win conference and state championships. At the state meet, Loukes won the 50 freestyle and was second in the 100 free. He was also was a key contributor to two come-from-behind relay wins.

“My part played [into winning the state title] a lot but the best part about it was just seeing the team come together,” he said. “So many kids swam beyond what I thought they could. It was an incredible team effort.”

Emery could see a difference in Loukes last winter. He was more vocal, the coach said, even speaking with teammates he felt weren’t taking things seriously enough.

“Once he started,” Emery said, “he was on a mission.”

An ‘alternative’ future

Loukes is currently in another long layoff from swimming, but it’s not self-enforced. He’s been battling a chronic sinus infection.

He’s also been quite busy. Almost every day this fall there was a practice or a game with the Brewer JV soccer team.

“I know the game, it’s something I’ve always been around,” said Loukes, who played two seasons of soccer at Bangor. “Coaching’s a different thing anyway. I love it. It’s a good time. The kids are really good.”

He got the job through Jeanne Brookings, who knows Brewer varsity coach Darren Hall. Hall was looking for a coach; Brookings recommended Scott.

“He wanted somebody who would be kind and really enjoy the kids and someone who would make the kids want to continue,” Brookings said. “I thought Scott would be perfect.”

Loukes and his father also are renovating a restaurant in Hudson they have big plans for – breakfast and lunch at first, and eventually dinner. When Richard Loukes retires, Scott wants to go to school.

He already has the place picked out: Naropa College in Boulder, Colo. It’s close to Jack Brookings, who attends Boulder College of Massage Therapy. Before Jack left for Colorado, Scott gave him a small pouch filled with some of Judith’s ashes.

Naropa isn’t a liberal arts school. Students there study alternative medicine, the kinds of things Loukes learned from the Cheyenne – the kinds of things he and his father did for Judith when she was sick.

“My mom had been a teacher for years, she loved teaching, she loved education,” he said. “She just always wanted her boys to get an education.”

Jeanne Brookings keeps in close contact with Scott these days through phone calls. She recently had dinner with Scott and Erica Schweikert, a Bangor High senior and Jack’s longtime girlfriend.

“It was just this past year that I’ve seen him smile,” Jeanne said, flashing one of her own.