Since 2001, wrestling coach Bill Ross has brought considerable success to the program.

But after the Panthers won the Class 6A title in February, he decided to call it a career.

“I see a lot of these old wrestling coaches limping around, hobbling around cause their body’s kind of beat up,” Ross said.

Still, being in good health is what inspired him to head into retirement.

“I’m going to go ahead and step out a little early and enjoy some of the other things in my life, which includes a lot of time with my family,” Ross said.

He isn’t done with Derby just yet, though.

“I have one more year to teach next year, but I decided to go ahead and call it a career as far as coaching wrestling,” Ross said.

The Panthers also won a 6A title in 2019.

“We were state champions this year and then we were also state champions in 2019. So yeah, it’s good to go out on a high note if you want to call it that,” Ross said. “… We had a great year, couldn’t be more proud of the season that we had, just a fantastic season.”

On their journey to the state tournament, the boys decided to dye their hair gold. After capturing the title, Ross followed suit.

“I told them if we win state, I would dye my beard,” Ross said.

A picture of him with the golden beard was posted to Derby wrestling Twitter account, and currently has 74 likes.

But if you see him in the halls or in the gym, you may notice a clean-shaven Ross.

“I went to get it trimmed up at the haircut place and the lady kind of screwed it up a little bit. So I thought, ‘you know what? I’ll just cut the whole thing off’,” he said.