Cain Shatzer also enjoys anything with a motor. Here he is with his truck, but has also enjoyed riding bikes, stand up jet skis and snowmobiles. He also took another vehicle of his out for some ice driving on North Pond last weekend. submitted photo.
BETHEL — When Cain Shatzer tries something new, he’s going to go all in on whatever it may be. It’s part of who he is, the Pennsylvania native says.
“I kind of have a pattern of doing one thing and going hardcore at it and then moving to another thing and going hardcore at it,” he said.
After moving to Maine, baseball was one of the first things Shatzer took an interest in after settling down. He played baseball for multiple towns teams and still plays for Telstar. He is hoping to get on the diamond this spring for one last season.
At the start of his seventh grade year, he started boxing. He quickly became involved and soon found himself traveling to tournaments up and down the east coast. He competed as far south as Virginia Beach and as far north as Halifax. Despite all the competitions, Shatzer said the biggest benefit of boxing was that it got him into good physical shape.
Another benefit of the sport was all the different boxers he got to meet at competitions. Cornelius “K9” Bundrage, Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitsker and Buster Douglas were a few Shatzer met. Douglas is perhaps best known for defeating Mike Tyson in 1990 for the title, which is considered one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
“It something I can always look back on and it’s something I can also always go back to,” Shatzer said of the sport.
Unfortunately school, along with the closest gym being an hour from home, forced Shatzer to give up boxing his sophomore year.
He still talks to some of the people he met during his couple years competing.
He said Mohammed Ali and Floyd Mayweather are his two favorite boxers. He has original memorabilia from the famed Ali vs Sonny Liston fight, which took place in Lewiston in May, 1965.
Outside of boxing, Shatzer has also played soccer and football for Telstar and enjoys fishing, ice fishing and skiing on his own time. He admitted his plans after graduation this June were initially filled with skiing.
“I thought I would ski for awhile and be all about skiing,” Shatzer said. “I was just going to be skiing, maybe traveling and whatever else came with it.”
But plans changed one day after Shatzer got a call from his mother saying that a Navy recruiter had called home asking for him.
“I thought about it for a split second and then decided to give him a call back,” he said.
Shatzer spoke with the recruiter multiple times and met with him in-person, also. His parents then signed some paperwork and after that he was off to Portland to take the ASVAB test, required for anyone looking for military employment.
Shatzer said he struggled the first time with the test, but did much better the second time around and soon had a contract with the Navy working as an engineman [Machinery Technician].
He ships out on July 29 for boot camp at Great Lakes Illinois.
With COVID-19, basic training is now 10 weeks long, instead of eight, due to two-week trading periods. After boot camp, Shatzer will head straight to engineman school for 12 weeks.
“I’m ready to get out and do something else, take on a new challenge,” he said.
As Shatzer said, a pattern in his life has been trying out new things and going all in on them. Before the Navy, he had his eyes set on becoming a cop, and even spent time doing ride alongs with Oxford County Deputy Mike Fitzmorris, who he considers a close friend. Shatzer recalled his first meeting with Fitzmorris, which came when the deputy pulled Shatzer over for speeding one night. Fitzmorris ended up giving Shatzer a break and a few weeks later, when it was career week at Telstar, Shatzer reached out to Fitzmorris asking if he could shadow the deputy.
“He’s one of my best friends now, we talk all the time,” Shatzer said. “He had a very long shift the other day and I stayed up real late just to talk to him and and make sure he got home alright.”
Right before he went to sleep he received a text from Fitzmorris saying “I made it.”
Shatzer said he thoroughly enjoyed shadowing the deputy and may consider becoming a cop after his time in the Navy. And if he continues to follow his pattern of trying something new, there’s a good chance that will happen.
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