Down 4-0 in the second period of the International Silver Stick tournament semi-final game, then 12-year-old Mario Fate and his other pre-teen teammates had little time to catch up to their Canadian opponent. Players twice their age would lose hope and accept their fate. However, the boys returned to the ice and came out on top.

“We ended up winning the tournament, and it was special because I was with all my hometown friends, and we grew up together playing,” Fate, now a senior, said. “That’s easily my best memory playing.” 

This was the first of two championships Fate and his team won, with Fate being named MVP of the second. At the time, he was playing with the Omaha Jr. Mavericks 12U team. Since then, he’s been successful with both Omaha Mastery, another club team, and the Omaha Lancers, a team within the nation’s top junior hockey league, the United States Hockey League (USHL). 

“He’s got an unbelievable, competitive drive,” Fate’s youth coach, Christian Graham, said. “As far as an athlete goes, you cannot teach that. He’s extremely competitive, not only in hockey, but when he was in baseball, football and wrestling. (The biggest improvement I saw in him was) him harnessing the mental side of his game. At first he was kind of a loose cannon, but now he’s able to control his emotions, and I think that’s helped him a lot.”

At just four years old, Fate was first introduced to hockey by his father and his old neighbor and classmate, GHS senior Landon Bagley, who currently plays for the Omaha Mastery AAA Hockey 18U team. The two were teammates on their junior teams for several years before Fate started with the Lancers.

“His love of Hockey started when he was about 4; My company had an outing to a UNO Hockey game and he was completely focused on the game,” Brian Fate, Mario Fate’s dad, wrote in an email. “After we got home, everything was a hockey stick and puck to him, baseball bats, toys, balls, etc. Here we are 13 years later.”

While Bagley and his father got him onto the ice, the support that Mario Fate has received for the last 13 years by loved ones, like his grandfather, is what allows him to continue and thrive in the sport. 

“When I was young, and I would come back from tournaments, he would ask me how I did and always asked me ‘did you make them remember your name?’” Mario Fate said. “That I always remember. He passed away in January 2021.”

In addition to his grandfather, both of Mario Fate’s parents have said how proud they are of everything their son has been able to accomplish.

“He was chosen for the CCM 68, which is a development camp for the 68 best 07′ birth year players,” Brian Fate said in an email. “He was the fastest skater. Mario was drafted by the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL as well as the Omaha Lancers of the USHL. My wife Carri and I are just hockey parents. I support him and his goals, try to make informed decisions and then get out the checkbook.” 

An additional source of support for Mario Fate is the Lancer’s captain, Luke Baker. At 17 years old, Fate is the third youngest member of the team with several of his teammates being nearly 21. Baker started in the USHL at the same age as Fate, which has encouraged him to share his experiences with him as well as make sure he is included with the rest of the team.

“I’m a younger guy in the league, so I don’t have all this weight to be throwing around,” Mario Fate said. “I know I can’t do much to the bigger guys. I don’t have the right to take a dumb penalty and cost my team. I try to stay even headed and remember the younger guys don’t get much play time, so if I did something stupid I would get taken out and not get to play.”

While Mario Fate has only been with the Omaha Lancers for a year, there have been several changes in management and coaching. Fate said that Baker and the rest of his teammates have had to support each other and persevere through challenges. 

“There’s been a lot of coaching changes. But all the guys, we’re all really tight and good friends,” Mario Fate said. “Since there’s been a lot of coaching and organizational changes, we’ve just bonded over that and realized we need to stick together as a team, because we never really know what’s going to happen outside of what we can’t control.”

To manage both his participation on a competitive hockey team and being a high school senior, Mario Fate’s only in-person class is first period. Then, he makes his way to a four-and-a-half-hour practice, which he does from Monday through Thursday. The Lancers compete against other teams in the USHL on Fridays and Saturdays.  

“I do have online classes,” he said. “I did some summer classes to lessen the load my senior year, which sucks, but I’m very glad I did it. It’s a challenge, but there’s three or four of us high school students on the team, but there’s, like, a tutor for the team that helps us out.”

Because of his time commitment with the Lancers, Fate has had to stop his involvement in sports other than hockey, like football, wrestling, track and baseball, where he was highly successful.

“I got to watch him hit a homerun in the district baseball tournament, and hit a walk off against Skutt,” Brian Fate said in an email. “I enjoyed watching him play football and help the (Gretna) Middle School to an undefeated season. I was able to see him set the middle school record in the 100m dash. He even did some pretty good wrestling. While I am proud of his sports accomplishments, I am prouder of the person he is becoming.”

Mario Fate is lucky enough to play for a team located in his hometown, which has allowed him to experience normal teenage life with his family and long-time friends.

“The typical hockey journey has you leaving home around 16 to play for a team and living with a Billet (host) family,” Brian Fate said in an email. “Since Mario has been fortunate enough to play in Omaha his whole career, he was able to still attend in person school, go to Homecomings and Proms, participate in sports and spend time with the friends he grew up with. A pretty normal high school experience. This is very rare in the hockey community.”

While he will be eligible for the National Hockey League (NHL) draft, Mario Fate said he will not get drafted this year. However, Fate’s youth coach, Christian Graham, said he sees his former player competing in division one hockey as well as professionally.

“Hockey works a little differently than regular high school sports,” Mario Fate said. “I can play for the Lancers until I’m 20. I don’t have to commit anywhere until then. If I were to commit right now, I would talk to them and they would tell me when they want me there. (My) dream pro team is (the) Pittsburgh Penguins; (my) dream college team (is) UNO just because it’s local and I could stay home.”

Fate said he credits much of his success in hockey to the dedication and commitment that his coaches have shown for his athletic career. 

“My old coach from (Omaha) Mastery started a summer camp for teens that’s four hours a day and we just get tips and improve in the off season,” Mario Fate said. “He’s the main reason I’m where I am at, and I don’t think I would be the same player I am without him.”