When Joe Anderson got married, he also signed up to be a wrestling coach.
Eight years ago, Anderson’s three new stepsons were all deep into the sport, so the former high school soccer player took it upon himself to learn as much about wrestling as possible.
Fast forward, and Anderson’s now been in the corner for three state titles, the latest of which was Salida senior Samuel Johnson’s second straight championship on Saturday at Ball Arena. The Western Colorado University commit won the Class 3A 157-pound bracket after claiming the 150-pound title last year.
“Joe didn’t really know anything about the sport when he married my mom, but because he loved our family so much, he came in, he stepped into that role as best he could, and with that comes picking up wrestling,” Samuel Johnson explained. “He started taking us to practice, watching practices, watching matches, watching YouTube — just collecting all the wrestling knowledge he could.”
As the wrestling saying goes, a grappler is only as good as the people in his or her corner. Championship Saturday in Denver offered proof that if the person in your corner is also your dad, the payoff can be doubly as good.
Whether it be step-dads, like Anderson; biological dads, like Regis Jesuit’s Zach Zimmerer; or adopted dads, like Pomona’s Ben Barrows, the jump-into-the-coach ‘s-arms after winning a state title hits even sweeter with the father-child bond. Regis Jesuit’s Remington Zimmerer, top, wrenches on Pine Creek’s Zoe Gabel’s leg during their championship Class 5A 120-pound match at the Colorado high school wrestling state tournament on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
For Zimmerer, who coached his daughter, Remington Zimmerer, to a second straight state title in the Class 5A 120-pound bracket, the opportunity to have a front-row seat to seeing Remington evolve into one of Colorado’s best female wrestlers is worth its weight in parenting gold.
“This is the best family time you can get, as a wrestling coach with your own kid,” said Zimmerer, who was a Pac-10 champion wrestler at Stanford. “You’re helping your kid through really hard things. And then being able to experience things like (a state title) with them, where they have a huge amount of success and their hard work pays off, is great for our relationship.
“When Remy (and her sisters) were younger, I had a friend who was complaining about how much you have to travel for wrestling. I told him we spend every weekend in a hotel room with our kids. He’s like, ‘Oh, well, I’m at home with mine every weekend and I haven’t seen her for like three days.’ That sort of story opens your eyes.”
Regis Jesuit’s Remington Zimmerer gets pumped up by her father and coach Zach Zimmerer before wrestling Pine Creek’s Zoe Gabel during their championship Class 5A 120-pound match at the Colorado high school wrestling state tournament on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)While Anderson has coached Samuel Johnson and his two brothers (the oldest Drew won a 215-pound title in 2023, and the youngest Jake took fifth at 165 this year) with “a little bit of love, little bit of hardness,” he also echoed Zach Zimmerer’s sentiment about the sport allowing him to get to know his stepsons on a uniquely personal level.
“I’ve learned a lot about each individual boy and his personalities by working with them as their coach,” Anderson said. “This sport builds men more than any other sport out there, and I’ve loved every second of being in their corner.”
Meanwhile, as the Pomona dynasty rolled on with an eighth straight Class 5A title and eye-popping state-meet record 303.5 total points, two of the wrestlers who helped the Panthers achieve that mark also got to experience dad in their corner.
Derek Barrows won his third state title, pinning Ponderosa’s Jack Simpson in the second period in the 150-pound finals, while fellow Panthers senior Kalob Ybarra also won his third title via a major decision over Pine Creek’s Brogan Trollope in the 175-pound finals. Barrows is committed to Wyoming, and Ybarra will wrestle at Oregon State. Pomona’s Derek Barrows pins Ponderosa’s Jack Simpson in a Class 5A 150-pound state championship match on the final day of the Colorado high school wrestling state tournament, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. Barrows took the state title. (Photo by Rebecca Slezak/Special to The Denver Post)
Both owe a lot of their success and development to Pomona assistant coach Ben Barrows, Derek’s biological dad and Kalob’s adopted dad. The Barrows family took Ybarra in during middle school.
“When that happened, I got a second son,” said Ben Barrows, who won a state title in high school in Wyoming. “I wanted a second son when (Derek) was a baby, and I basically got one when he was in seventh grade. I’ve been in their corner for every match since.”
For the Pomona duo, Johnson and Remington Zimmerer, whatever their future in the sport brings, having dad as coach will be towards the top of the memories box.
“A lot of our conversations are definitely oriented around wrestling, but all our talks about the sport help our communication in everything else, and I love getting to hear his ideas,” Remington Zimmerer said. “Listening to him is really important for me. And I won’t ever stop wanting to hear what he has to say.”
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