DIXFIELD – Picture an all-American boy and that would be Lucas Dolloff.

“He was a terrific kid who was always on the go, full of energy, and everybody loved him,” said his uncle, Gary Dolloff, Tuesday afternoon.

Lucas, 11, died tragically in a freak accident early Monday evening behind his house as a result of a sand pile falling on him.

He loved his dogs, Max, a black lab mix, and Balto, a German shepherd, and was always out in the backwoods of his home on the Common Road with them.

“They followed him around all over the place,” said Josanne Dolloff, an aunt who lives in Rumford.

He had even thought of becoming a veterinarian, she said.

Being outdoors, whether it was climbing trees, fishing with his father, James, at Concord Pond, or playing sports was a huge part of his life.

He played youth football for the Forty-Niners, as a guard or outside linebacker, where he was a first-round pick, and was twice state wrestling champ for his age group, said his aunt. His football team is dedicating the rest of the season to him, said Gary Dolloff.

SAD 21 Superintendent Tom Ward said the youth football coaches were among the adults and counselors who came into the school on Tuesday to help support Lucas’s classmates.

“Lucas impacted a lot of people. He was upbeat and a lot of fun,” said Ward.

His mother, Heidi, said by e-mail that his best buds were Elliot and Dylan and that his favorite sidekick was his cousin, Sabin Lavorgna. She said the two were nicknamed “Peas and Carrots” because they were almost attached at the hip.

Ward said the district’s crisis team, which includes all of the guidance counselors, was called Tuesday morning into Dirigo Middle School where Lucas was a fifth-grade student. They put together a fact sheet on Lucas’s death and read it to each of the classes. Three or four adults stayed in Lucas’s classroom to try to be supportive.

Some of his classmates wrote notes and drew pictures to try to express their feelings, said Ward. Other classes created collages and posters and hung them on the side of the school. The girls’ field hockey team took one of the posters to Telstar Middle and High School where they were playing Tuesday afternoon.

“It has been a very emotional morning,” said Ward.

Lucas has siblings attending the middle school, Dixfield Elementary School and Dirigo High School, so counselors were also available to those students as well, said Ward.

During the next few days, Ward said most of the support staff will be present at the middle school for any child or staff member who wants to talk.

Lucas comes from a large family, with dozens of aunts, uncles and cousins. He also leaves sisters, Rebecca, 12, who attends seventh grade at the middle school, and Rachel, 6, a first-grader at Dixfield Elementary School, and a brother, Benjamin, 14, a freshman at DHS.

Another brother, Joseph, died at age 3 in 1991 of leukemia.

Thinking of her nephew, Lucas, Josanne Dolloff said: “He just makes me smile. He was always so full of life and happiness. He was a typical kid. The good Lord gives them to us and can take them away.”

Visiting hours are scheduled from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday at the Wiles Remembrance Center, Weld Street, Dixfield. The funeral will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 6, at the remembrance center.