An apprentice wrestling coach at the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games, Taylor McPherson will once again don the Team Alberta gear for the St. John’s 2025 Canada Summer Games.

“I had a blast at the last Canada Summer Games,” she said. “So I’m really excited to go back and enjoy the experience with a new group of kids - this time as the female head coach.”

Even if you’re not dialed into the youth wrestling scene, her name might ring a bell if you're an avid fan of reality TV. McPherson won season 10 of The Amazing Race Canada, which wrapped up earlier this month, with Katie Mulkay, her former teammate from the University of Alberta Pandas.

McPherson said that success in this once in a lifetime experience often relied on some of the same aspects that drew her to wrestling.

“From the minute I stepped on the mat, I loved the sport. I loved the fact that, as a small girl, I could do whatever the boys could do, and that I was just as tough as them - if not tougher. Although I am a really girly-girl, I also love getting down and dirty, being aggressive, and letting out that dominant side of me.”

This outlook led to the team’s mantra on the show, “Strong is beautiful,” which McPherson said they hoped would help inspire more women in sport.

As an athlete, McPherson narrowly missed out on competing at the 2017 Canada Games, but went on to win multiple conference and national medals for the Pandas and even competed for Team Canada at the U23 World Wrestling Championships in 2021 and 2022.

Longtime University of Alberta head coach Owen Dawkins - who has coached Team Alberta at the Canada Games since 2013 - suggested McPherson apply for an opportunity at the Canada Games in Niagara through the Aboriginal Sport Circle.

“When I saw the Indigenous Apprenticeship Coach applications coming out for the Canada Summer Games, it was getting to that point in my career where I was ready to start giving back to the sport that had done so much for me,” she said.

A year after her first Games coaching experience, which she described as “magical,” McPherson helped assemble a team from Alberta for the 2023 North American Indigenous Games.

“It was very much like Canada Summer Games, but it had more culture involved, and I loved that about those Games” she said. “It was in Halifax, which is Mi’kma’ki territory, and I am Mi’kmaw myself, so it was really cool for me to get that opportunity to not only experience our sports, but to experience my culture directly in the Mi’kma’ki territory.”

McPherson is a proud member of the Miawpukek First Nation, which is a five and half hour drive from St. John’s, NL - the host community of the 2025 Canada Games. She said she will spend some extra time in the area, after concluding her coaching duties next year.

“I definitely have plans to visit my Nation, which I’m really excited about, because I haven’t had many opportunities to go out to the Nation and meet members within my community,” McPherson said. “My grandparents are still out East, so they’re thrilled for me to come back to Newfoundland next summer. They’re ready to see me coach in action.”

The preparation is already underway to build the best possible team to compete in St. John’s next August. Team Alberta won the women’s team bronze medal in 2022, as well as five individual medals across the 10 women’s weight classes. McPherson said her focus in 2025 will be on more than just the podium.

“Alberta usually does have a pretty strong wrestling presence, so we’re ready to bring it with all we’ve got,” she said. “I’m going to promote a really strong and good culture, where everybody is uplifting one another and pushing each other to their fullest potential.”

McPherson’s people-first approach provides room for her athletes to lose, learn, and grow. She said seeing that growth has been the most rewarding part of becoming a coach.

“It takes a certain type of person to be able to admit and accept their failures, and I think that’s what makes really good humans,” McPherson said. “I’ve seen their characters be built up just through those certain losses at these Games, and I’ve seen how they have now excelled even more - in their athletic career or even their life in general.”

In addition to her role with Team Alberta, McPherson is heading into her second year as an assistant coach with the University of Alberta. In her day job, she works for the Indigenous Sport Council of Alberta (ISCA) as a Special Programs Coordinator, focusing on Reconciliation and Strength for Indigenous Women and Girls.

While completing her master’s degree in kinesiology, she had previously worked for the ISCA as a Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation Coordinator.

At the outset of her journey on The Amazing Race Canada, McPherson said, if she won, part of the prize money would further the work she has a passion for and experience in: bringing sport to Indigenous communities. Without having spent any of the money yet, she is already on a path to be a difference maker in wrestling and beyond.

“Not only am I trying to be a role model in the sport, I’m exposing our Indigenous youth to it and trying to grow it for other communities as well.”