Published: April 24, 2008 11:35 am            

Matt Faery: serves front line of homeland security

HAVRE, MONT. — Matt Faery got to drop by his parents’ house recently for a couple homecooked meals.

It’s an unexpected perk of his job, supervising an intelligence unit of the U.S. Border Patrol.

The Ransomville native who made local headlines as a three-sport star athlete for the Wilson Lakemen in the early 1990s is still driving his teams to goal.

In addition to leading an intelligence unit, he says, “I’ve got my own team at home: A wife and four kids under (age) six.”

The latest infant addition to the Faery team helps explain why Matt, 34, and wife Alison, a Poughkeepsie native, don’t get back to New York too often. They’d already written off their annual trip home this year when Matt was informed he’d be shuffling off to Buffalo in late March, for two weeks of Border Patrol training. Hence the detour to Ransomville and mom Diane’s kitchen, which Faery swears is the best part of the trip.

Work keeps Faery on the road about two months every year. It’s a juggling act with family, he said, but it’s also perfect work for an outdoorsman who, when he had to choose a path, dreaded the prospect of the buttoned-down office job.

Faery, who achieved all-state standing after his Lakemen football team made it to a sectional championship game at Rich Stadium, attended Holy Cross College on a football scholarship.

When he graduated in 1996, he tried following his friends into the popular career field at the time but found it wasn’t a good fit.

“All my friends were going to the banks,” he said. “I interviewed for a few jobs, but it was all cubicles. It wasn’t me.”

Instead, Faery took a part-time job coaching alongside his mentor, Wilson Central Athletic Director Charlie Jufer, and a post as a corrections officer at Niagara County Jail. Corrections wasn’t a great fit either, but law enforcement seemed like it was, so Faery started applying for federal jobs. Since Border Patrol called him first, that’s what he went with.

“They sent me to southern California for almost seven years,” Faery said. “I’ve been in Montana the last two years. ... It’s a good job, a good life.”

At home, the Faerys are instilling a love of the outdoors in their young children, one boy and three girls. There’s hunting, fishing and, lately, hockey to occupy their time. Faery is coaching his son’s first team, for 4- and 5-year olds, and looking forward to seeing where that goes.

The Faerys would return to New York permanently if it’s possible, Matt said — he applies for Border Patrol transfers routinely and hopes someday he’ll be “picked” — but in the meantime he and Alison are content to have their two, large families visit them in Havre.

His life is relatively simple, Matt said, and he’s blessed.

“If you can step back, look at yourself and say ‘I’d do it all again’ without blinking, you’re living a good life. And I am,” he said. “I have great kids, a great wife and a good job. I have no complaints.”



• Who: Matt Faery

• Where he is now: Havre, Mont.

• Reconnect with him: by e-mail at sader9896@yahoo.com

        

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