Decorated Sask wrestler launching platform to inspire wrestling’s next generation

Sanderson is the owner and operator of North Wrestle – a media outlet specializing in covering Canadian wrestling tournaments and athletes with the goal of growing the sport. It’s was a space in which Sanderson noticed a significant void.

“Right now, I’m the only person in the country doing what we’re doing. That was one of the main drivers – there’s an opportunity to grow the sport,” he said. “One of my core beliefs is that visibility creates opportunity.”

To fully understand Sanderson’s passion for growing the sport, and his grassroots approach to creating his own wrestling media outlet, one only needs to look at his determination within his own athletics.

Growing up in Sturgeon Lake, Sanderson lived on reserve with his parents, who were survivors of the residential school system. At 12 years of age, he moved in with his grandmother in Prince Albert. While attending St Mary High School, he was convinced by a persistent classmate to give wrestling a shot; a sport he had no prior interest in. After the first few practices, his interest remained tempered.

“At first I didn’t really love it. It was very hard but I kept showing up to practice and eventually it turned into an outlet,” he said. “My coaches really encouraged me. The community kept me in it during those early days.”

Sanderson at an international tournament, competing for Team Canada. (Image Credit: Bill Bain)

Sanderson competed in a handful of tournaments before taking his first top prize at a regional tournament. After that, he was hooked, and it was a steady progression from there.

In his second year, he repeated that regional title win and added a provincial championship to his credits, and a gold medal at the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG). Continuing his trajectory upwards in high school athletics, Sanderson won gold at the U19 national championships as well as multiple titles in regional and provincial wrestling, and several tournament wins in Ontario.

Moving to the University circuit following high school, Sanderson became a starter for the University of Saskatchewan (USask) wrestling team in 2023, where he lost only one match all season – the national final – while also picking up gold at the Canada-West Championship. He also competed in Argentina and Japan, and placed second in the Canada Olympic trials.

Around the end of 2024, Sanderson started to think about wrestling in a different, more nuanced way.

“Wrestling does so many great things for the community. It teaches you a lot of values in life – being disciplined and resilient. It shows you that you can do the hard things.”

Those lessons gave Sanderson the belief in himself to chase after his next dream. With barely a plan and no photography or videography experience, Sanderson walked into a camera store, bought some equipment, and began attending tournaments – as both a competitor and a documenter.

“I was creating content in between my matches,” he said. “I would go to a tournament, warm up for my match, compete, then grab my camera and create content for North Wrestle,” he said. “And I was still winning the tournaments while taking photos between the matches.”

Sanderson and his younger brother, Jonah. (Image Credit: Victor Pankratz)

Now, Sanderson is hitting pause on his athletics to concentrate fully on North Wrestle.

In less than two years, Sanderson has attended over 35 tournaments across the country, creating highlights and sharing wrestling stories. He has amassed almost 10,000 followers across his platforms and in his second year, generated about 9.6 million views.

“My main goal is to grow the sport of wrestling,” said Sanderson. “If I can create enough visibility to make an athlete want to join wrestling because they think it’s cool, then I’ve done my job.”

One of Sanderson’s biggest undertakings with North Wrestle is to create an unbiased, data-formulated ranking source of the best wrestlers in the country. Sanderson, who studied Math at USask, is utilizing those skills to create models and databases for the athlete rankings.

“A rankings platform is one of the biggest goals, using actual numbers and results from competitions,” he said. “But the other side of things – the graphic design, video, photography, administrative work – I didn’t study business, so a lot of this is new to me.”

In order to help grow his business, Sanderson has entered into the Pow Wow Pitch competition, which awards over $100,000 in prizes to Indigenous entrepreneurs. He is currently a semi-finalist in this season’s competition.

“It’s a great stepping stone to share my story and bring more attention to wrestling,” he said. “This is extremely mission-driven. This whole project is transitioning from a personal passion project to becoming something real.”

Sanderson’s passion has not only made an impact on the wrestling community, but his own family. His younger brother, Jonah, has followed in his wrestling footsteps. Jonah has already picked up a title at the Under-20 Greco-Roman Nationals, and a silver at the provincial championship.

“Seeing that I can be a role model for someone like my little brother is a huge accomplishment for me. And to extend that to Indigenous communities and be that role model, to show those kids and athletes that with hard work, you can create great opportunities,” said Sanderson.

“Growing up, I didn’t know there was a world outside the reserve. My goal is to show Indigenous kids that they can do the same thing, or even better. There’s so much world out there.”

North Wrestle can be found at northwrestle.com, or on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @northwrestle

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You can read more Indigenous focused stories on EFN Media.

by NC Raine/EFN Media

Decorated Sask wrestler launching platform to inspire wrestling’s next generation

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