My City January 2023

"Still, we were all just hanging out, having a good time that (2018) night, when a cousin I considered one of my best friends had been drinking and starts yelling at one of our female cous ins about something," he recalls. Matiere-Bey felt compelled to intervene and attempt to de-escalate the situation.That only led to the man, significantly smaller than the 6-foot-3, 285-pound Matiere-Bey, shoving him, but Matiere-Bey felt he could still calm down. The situation only grew more heated. "I kept telling him 'let's just relax', but he would not let it go," he says. "I finally end up shoving him back hard and he tells him he has something for me." Matiere-Bey knew that something was a gun. "I knew that's when I had to get out of there, took off running, made it about three or four blocks and tried to hide but he found me," he says. A frightened Matiere-Bey watched someone he had once trusted pull the weapon. "I was begging for my life, telling him I have kids to take care of and not to shoot," he recalls. The man didn't pull the trigger, but pistol-whipped Matiere-Bey in the head before leaving the scene. He required six stitches to his scalp. "To this day, I grow my hair to cover up the scar," he says. "I don't like looking at it." The incident forced Matiere-Bey to take a long look at where his life was headed. He had to change its direction. The next day, he signed up for classes at Mott Community College as a first step toward returning to Ferris and the sport that is his passion.

In the fall of 2019, he returned to the campus that had felt like a second home with an eye toward playing football again in 2020 until the global coronavi rus pandemic led to the cancellation of that season. "Having to take the COVID year was actually a good thing because it allowed more time for me to really get my body in shape to play again – really running and lifting – and figure out what job I could still work during the season to take care of my kids," he says. At last, on September 2, 2021, nearly five years after his last college football game, a now-25-year-old Matiere-Bey suited up for Ferris' season-opener I WAS BEGGING FOR MY LIFE, TELLING HIM I HAVE KIDS TO TAKE CARE OF AND NOT TO SHOOT." NIC MATIERE-BEY The quick, nimble, yet wrecking ball of a defensive tackle first excelled at Flint Southwestern High School, then NCAA Division I Austin Peay University in Clarksville, TN and finally, Ferris State. Matiere-Bey also excelled that semester at Mott, leaving his academic struggles behind, with a 3.7 grade point average.That, combined with a 3.3 in a summer math class, and Matiere-Bey was in good enough academic standing to re-enroll at Ferris.

against the University of Findlay. He finished with four tackles as the Bull dogs blasted Findlay, 54-14. "It just felt so good to be out on the field again, like the most normal thing ever, what I was meant to do," Mat iere-Bey says. "I didn't feel too rusty, just amazing. Playing football again was the breath of fresh air I felt I could not get anywhere else." Matiere-Bey helped the Bulldogs bulldoze through opponent after op ponent last season which culminated in the program's first Division II National Championship. Ferris actually trailed, 17-14, in the title game in McKinney, TX against Valdosta State before reeling off 44 unanswered points for a 58-17 trouncing. Before kickoff, emotions flooded over Matiere-Bey as he reflected on all he had endured and overcome to experience the moment, including an extremely challenging schedule of work, football, classes and fatherhood during the season. "I could feel myself starting to cry, taking everything in before the game," he says. "I had never played in a cham pionship game like this before, had never even been to Texas before. Now, here I was, one of our captains heading out for the coin toss before the game, about to play in such a huge game with my boys." In the first half, Matiere-Bey made three tackles before cracking a couple of ribs and missing the remainder of the game. "I felt awful being on the sideline and the waterworks came back, but (my teammates) snapped me out of it," he says. "They were like, 'Bro, you did all you could do'. Let us finish it off.The game was still close, but at that moment it felt like we were going to win, for sure. We took off from there."

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