Inside the mind of a champion: How Nate Petrone stays hungry, even at the top
By Maggie Hsu, April 26 2025—
When Nate Petrone walked off the court after the Dinos claimed the Canada West Championship title over the UBC Thunderbirds, he didn’t just feel like a winner, he felt like he had finally arrived.
It wasn’t just the trophy in his hands or the headlines and endless praise that followed, or even the individual awards for U SPORTS Player of the Year and Canada West Player of the Year. For Petrone, it was the culmination of years spent pouring every ounce of energy into being better but never the best: the practices sandwiched between labs and classes, the conditioning sessions, the overlooked seasons, the weight of the chip on his shoulder encouraging him to prove himself over and over again. No trophy or medal could match up.
“It was the best accomplishment I’ve had in university,” Petrone said in an interview with The Gauntlet. “I think I might have appreciated it more than some of the guys because I’ve been at a school where my first year [with Mount Royal] we were 3-17 with a 17-game losing streak. I’ve seen the bottom and reaching the top was so amazing.”
A homegrown product
Before Petrone became the Dinos’ leading scorer and the best player of the 2024-25 U SPORTS season, he was just a kid growing up on the basketball court.
Quite literally.
His dad, a basketball coach at Bishop O’Byrne High School in Southeast Calgary, brought him onto the court at any given opportunity. “Anytime there would be a timeout or at halftime, I would shoot on the floor, barely being able to touch the rim,” Petrone laughed. “I was just always around basketball.”
Like many Canadian kids, he dabbled in other sports. But the decision to quit hockey came easily when he realized it meant waking up early on Saturdays to make it for those early morning ice times. Basketball, on the other hand, was the one thing he could not put down. Petrone reminisced about playing out on the driveway with his brother, developing a deep love for competition and beginning to chase the feeling of improvement year after year.
That hunger eventually made him one of Calgary’s top high school players. A breakout Grade 11 season in high school earned him interest from universities like Calgary, Victoria and UBC Petrone entered Grade 12 with high expectations but an early injury in Grade 12 scared scouts away — even though he played most of the season and had one of his strongest years. He ended up with one offer from the Mount Royal Cougars.
To some, it might have looked like disappointment. To Petrone, it was just another step.
Building blocks down the road
At MRU, Petrone earned his minutes. Initially, on the edge of redshirting, he worked his way into the rotation, eventually becoming a key contributor. But three seasons in, Petrone craved more — not just in terms of wins, but in energy, expectation and culture. “It just wasn’t the environment I wanted anymore,” he said.
Enter: the University of Calgary Dinos and head coach Dan Vanhooren came calling.
“I had to be in a position to prove myself,” Petrone reflected on his redshirt season with the Dinos. “A lot of people look at it [a redshirt season] as a negative thing, but honestly, that was a good thing for me to learn what the program was, learn what Dan was like, what the culture and the team was like and what I needed to become the next year.”
Due to U SPORTS transfer rules, he had to sit out a year but he used this time to adjust to the new program, a time that Petrone declared a “blessing”.
“Culture is King”
Petrone made his debut in the red and gold in the 2022-23 season. He quickly made his mark as he became the team’s leading scorer. But his presence was felt beyond points per game, it was all about the buy-in.
In the eyes of Petrone and the Dinos roster, the difference between good teams and championship teams is culture — not stats or wins. It’s the reason the Dinos wore shirts that read Culture is King during the U SPORTS Championship Final 8 in Vancouver. He talks about culture like some people talk about defensive strategy, as something that wins championships.
While Petrone’s stat lines draw headlines, he’d rather talk about the redshirts who studied game tape, the bench players who stayed ready, or the strength coach who enforced postgame cooldowns — even when the team didn’t want to do them.
“I haven’t missed a game in my career,” he said. “So maybe those cooldowns are worth it.”
“We had a guy that was redshirting for us, who was never going to see the floor, he’s not going to see any minutes but near the end of the year, he was traveling with us,” Petrone highlighted transfer player, Kace Archuleta who, like Petrone, sat out the season to gain his eligibility. “He was studying the other team’s game film and probably watching more film than any of us to get the [opposing] team’s calls, their signals, what each play was, so I feel like that defines team culture.”
It showed. Despite dealing with injuries to key players like Noah Wharton, Declan Peterson and Aidan Smith during the U SPORTS tournament, the Dinos pressed on, led by a shared sense of purpose.
“We had to figure out who was really in this for the team,” Petrone noted of how the team came together in mentality. “That was our turning point. Once we did, things just clicked.”
Nationals: The ultimate grind
Winning the Canada West title was the peak but it also came with an immediate drop. From hoisting the championship trophy and celebrating off the court to catching a 4:30 a.m. flight back to Calgary for classes and practice, diving headfirst into U SPORTS Nationals prep.
Even after their finals loss to Victoria, Petrone noted the Dinos were united in identity. From cool-down jogs after every game — win or lose — to vouching for unsung heroes like Beckett Johnson to get key minutes in the biggest game of the year, this team believed in the power of cohesion.
Petrone’s leadership isn’t loud. It’s steady. It’s earned. And it’s shared.
“Early on, I kept quiet. I was still the new guy,” he said. “But by this year, I felt like I had the experience to speak up — to stand up for the guys doing the right things. That mattered more to me than any award.”
What’s next for the Player of the Year?
Petrone’s season ended with personal accolades few athletes will ever touch — U SPORTS Player of the Year, Canada West MVP — but he admits it’s still hard to process.
“I was driving home the other day and just thought, ‘Did that really happen?’” he said. “It’s all moved so fast.”
He’s undecided about his next move. He was eligible to re-enter the recent 2025 Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) draft and has had teams reach out to sign a contract for the summer league, but his sights may be set overseas. After a redshirt year, a very brief stint with the CEBL’s Edmonton Stingers as a U SPORTS Development player early in the 2024 season and a championship campaign that left his body in “grind mode”, he’s weighing what’s best for the next phase of his career.
“I want to keep playing, but this season was hard on my body. I need to be smart,” he said. “If I can use basketball to see the world and experience something new, that’s all I could ask for.”
Still, whether this is the last time Petrone suits up for the Dinos or he chooses to return for the Dinos’ 2026 campaign for U SPORTS supremacy, he knows what kind of legacy he’s leaving. No matter where he ends up, he knows the Dinos are in good hands. He sees it in the younger players, the buy-in, the way Coach Vanhooren put first-years into the national championship game just to give them a taste of the moment.
“We’ve shown what it takes to win. And hopefully, we’ve shown that character, culture and consistency matter more than anything. Whether I’m with them or not next year, I know we’ve left something behind that lasts.”
And as for the kid chasing the rim during halftime, he’d be proud. But he’d still be working.