Local volleyball coach Terry McMahon spent the summer traveling internationally and within Canada coaching volleyball and learning from other coaches, and he hopes to bring his new knowledge back to his players in the region.
McMahon, Fort Frances High School and 807 Selects Volleyball coach, was a participant in the 2025 Aboriginal Apprentice Coach Program, which gave coaches with First Nations, Métis or Inuit ancestry an opportunity to coach at the Canada Games this past July in St. John’s, NL. As part of that apprenticeship, McMahon had the opportunity to go to training camp with Team Ontario’s women’s volleyball team for the Canada Games.
“It was our head coach’s decision to do an international training camp partly for team bonding, travelling together and staying together and all that, and partly for the training part,” McMahon said.
“European volleyball culture is really strong, so that’s really cool, so we had the opportunity to go to Slovenia. We trained at the Draš training academy. A professional club owns it in Maribor, Slovenia, it’s basically an all-inclusive volleyball resort, you sleep there, you eat there, there’s four volleyball courts and has everything you need right in house, so it’s really cool.”
After returning to Canada, they had a brief break before resuming training ahead of the Canada Games.
McMahon said the Canada Games were unlike anything he’d been a part of before.
“I didn’t really have any idea of the scope of it, like how big they were and they include para games as well, so I think it’s the only games of its kind in the world, so that was really cool.”
At the games, Team Ontario was in a tough pool with British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia. They bested B.C. three sets to one in their first match but fell in five sets to Alberta in a tightly contested match before bouncing back against Nova Scotia and winning their final preliminary round match in three sets.
“We ended up second in our pool, we lost to Alberta and in pool play,” he said.
“We knew we could play better, we didn’t play our best. In our quarterfinal game we met Quebec, they were a really tricky, crafty team. Their coach is a coach that has a lot of tricks up his sleeves. He’s one of those coaches where he’s just so smart, who knows the game so well.”
They’d win the quarterfinal three sets to one, losing the second set but finishing strong.
“Then we played Saskatchewan in the semis, that was another good match,” McMahon said.
“Sask is always strong.”
They won the semifinal in four sets, dropping the third but coming back to win the fourth, which set up a rematch against Alberta in the final.
“Then we met Alberta in the final again, which is kind of what we wanted, what we forecasted,” McMahon said.
“We all kind of figured that’s the way it would happen. So it was nice to get the win back from Alberta for the gold.”
While McMahon knows that the local skill is not quite as high a level as the provincial team, he said he learned he can be more competitive.
“It’s a higher level of playing and maybe stuff that’s not all applicable, we’re not quite at that level obviously but new things here and there,” McMahon shared.
“Definitely a whole new level of competitiveness. I think it taught me that I can definitely be more competitive as a coach and kind of raise the bar in the standards for my athletes here. But it’s more motivation for me to be more competitive, keep developing our athletes and raise the bar for volleyball in the area and specifically in Fort Frances.”
Earlier this week McMahon was also named the winner of the Susan Kitchen Trailblazer Award in the 2025 Ontario Coaching Excellence Awards.
In a post announcing the award, Coaches Ontario said that McMahon’s coaching improves his players not only on the volleyball court, but in their everyday lives as well.
“Since 2015, Terry has been a transformational leader in volleyball, breaking barriers and creating opportunities for athletes in underserved regions,” the post said.
“He empowers athletes to grow in confidence, resilience, and identity—always leading with empathy, cultural awareness, and care. From coaching the 17U Dream Team to a Silver Medal at the Alberta Indigenous Summer Games to mentoring countless young players, Terry’s impact reaches far beyond the scoreboard. His athletes don’t just develop skills—they grow stronger in community, purpose, and pride.”
Over the last number of years McMahon has had players he’s coached go on to post-secondary education and continue to play volleyball, as well as playing at a national and international level.
“Currently there’s seven kids just from last year’s class involved in post-secondary, so playing at the college level and then we had two involved in international competitions,” McMahon said.
“I don’t know of any sport that has those kind of numbers, not just in Fort Frances but in northwestern Ontario. So I think it’s just a testament to how the game is growing here and everyone’s love of the sport. I think when you enjoy something and you love it that much, I think you’re more willing to put the work in and it’s enjoyable.”
McMahon recently started a new season as the head coach of the Fort Frances High School Muskies Senior Boys Volleyball team,\. He said this year’s team is different than he’s used to.
“I think it’s not a super experienced team, like in the past, where we had, like, a large group of dedicated volleyball players,” he said.
“But we’re physical, we’re super good athletes, and I think we’re the biggest. In our talks, we’ve already had a few talks about our season, and I think it’s just going to be, how hard can we work and how much can we learn in a short amount of time to bridge a gap? Because I think Beaver Brae will be the team to beat again, and they’re a very experienced team, but I think with our physicality and our size, I think if we apply ourselves and pick some things up, then we can definitely be competitive. But we’re going for gold, don’t get it twisted.”
The FFHS Muskies open the fall court sports season at home on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, facing off against Sioux Lookout.
