LOS GATOS — Despite passionate, last-ditch pleas from seven more supporters of wrestling coach Ricardo Garcia, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District board did not budge Tuesday night.

By a 3-1 vote, the board approved the hiring of former Gilroy coach Greg Varela, whose arrival as Garcia’s successor at Los Gatos clearly is not being greeted with open arms.

When the board made its decision at the end of a two-hour public session, one Garcia supporter stepped up to the microphone defiantly and, as he pumped his fist, said, “You guys don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know the sport you’re talking about. You think you know what you’re talking about. You don’t know anything.”

Another shouted, “You should all be fired!”

“I’ll second that,” someone else said.

Garcia’s supporters came to the school’s library to implore the board to correct what they believe is a wrong, the removal of their beloved and successful coach for one they say a few wealthy families bought.

Two coaches from a league rival, two former Los Gatos wrestlers — including one who is in the school’s Hall of Fame — a businessman with wrestling roots, a Los Gatos parent and a Los Gatos history teacher spoke in defense of Garcia, who did not attend on the advice of his attorney.

But the passionate addresses went for naught.

After waiting patiently through several other agenda items that followed the public comments, about two dozen Garcia supporters — no one spoke on Varela’s behalf — sat quietly as they watched board members Cynthia Chang and Katherine Tseng agonize with their decision.

The board was asked to approve a list of winter-sports coaching hires in one action item.

Chang wondered about Varela.

“I have concerns with the head wrestling coach,” she said. “All the others I am comfortable with. But I want to make sure, though, whatever the decision, by not taking action to approve tonight it’s not going to hurt the program moving forward.

“It is a hard decision for me to make. I think at this time I will go ahead and approve the entire list.”

Tseng, the board’s vice president, also grappled with the decision, ultimately casting a “nay” vote that ignited cheers from the crowd.

But the audience’s hope quickly turned to anger when it realized Robin Mano, the board’s president, and Rosemary Rossi also approved the list, officially making Varela the new wrestling coach.

“You just fired him,” one crowd member shouted, sounding stunned that Garcia, whose job as Spanish teacher is not in jeopardy, would no longer lead the wrestling program he turned around the past three years.

The school administration has not said why it has made a coaching change, citing the proverbial ”personnel matter,” but has been called out by Garcia’s supporters for its handling of the situation and lack of transparency and by Garcia’s attorney for a lack of due process and the appearance that the coach has done something wrong.

Garcia plans to move forward with mediation.

Six supporters defended the dismissed coach at a board meeting last month.

Seven new ones defended him Tuesday.

Mark Garrison, a businessman from Gilroy who wrestled in high school and college, told the board that the school is setting a bad precedent.

“I know good wrestling, I know great wrestling coaches,” said Garrison, whose son wrestled at state power Buchanan High in Clovis. “I know personality. I know character and integrity. You will not find a better coach than Ricardo Garcia. Greg Varela will not replace that. He is not an on-campus coach. Ricardo Garcia is a gift and you, whether you realize it or not, are kicking him in the teeth.”

Christie Pacheco, a Los Gatos history teacher, told the board about the cultural trips Garcia has taken his wrestlers on, including one to Cuba.

“Not many athletes will ever have an opprtunity to wrestle for a coach like Mr. Garcia,” she said. “I come from a wrestling family and I have seen many wrestling coaches in my time. He has created a family here. Mr. Garcia teaches more than just wrestling. He teaches his athletes about sportsmanship.

“When he took students to Cuba, they came back and told me about how they had wrestled against students with no shoes. So him and his wrestlers created a shoe drive and donated shoes to these wrestlers in Cuba.” For more Bay Area high school sports coverage follow Bay Area Preps on Flipboard.

Daniel McCune, the co-wrestling coach at Fremont High in Sunnyvale, told the board that one of the wealthy parents that Garcia’s supporters say is behind the move, Alfred Murabito, has played a role in coaches stepping down or being removed at Saratoga High, where Murabito’s older son wrestled.

Murabito has denied any involvement in the Los Gatos coaching change and that Varela is being paid big bucks, saying Wednesday that he is being portrayed incorrectly by Garcia’s supporters.

“This whole thing about rich families starting the process is incorrect,” Murabito said. “The Los Gatos AD started the process. I am getting dragged into this because I stated my opinion, which I have a right to do to the board.”

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“The administration has made a mistake, the AD has made a mistake and it’s unfortunate that this has gotten so far that the board has to fix it,” McCune said.

The board listened — and two members agonized — but it did not budge.