BANGOR – The Bangor School Committee approved the nomination of Larry Smith on Monday night to coach the Bangor High School varsity girls soccer team, ending an emotional effort from members of the community to get 12-year coach Jeff Ingalls reinstated after the position was opened up last month.

The school committee approved unanimously (5-0) a slate of more than 160 names of extra-duty personnel, including athletic coaches at all levels in the school system, in a regularly scheduled meeting at the Abraham Lincoln School.

Bangor Superintendent Robert “Sandy” Ervin read all of the names, revealing for the first time who the new girls soccer coach would be.

There were 11 audience members, seven of whom had some connection to Ingalls whether as family, current or former Bangor High athlete, or as a parent of a Bangor athlete.

It was a smaller group than the more than 50 who turned out at a Feb. 28 school committee meeting during which several soccer players fought through tears to explain why they wanted him back for the 2005 fall season.

All five people who spoke after Monday night’s vote voiced disappointment that Ingalls wouldn’t be back as the girls soccer coach.

“They will be out there,” said Bernard Angst, whose daughter Ilyse Angst will be a senior on the team next fall. “My daughter will be out there. They will be doing what they love to do, to play soccer. … But what this does is take away something.”

Erin McDermott, the only player at Monday’s meeting, stood up to speak but was unable to continue.

“There is so much I want to say now but I can’t because I’m so upset,” she said.

The meeting grew contentious at times as parents tried to understand the situation and the school committee tried to explain how the hiring decision was made.

“We advertise the position. We look at all the candidates, we go through a process,” Ervin said. “… I don’t know what more I can say.”

The position came to be open, Ervin said Feb. 28, after he met with Ingalls last summer, during which time Ingalls retired from teaching physical education in the Bangor school system.

Based on their conversation in that meeting, Ervin said, the understanding he had was that Ingalls was going to coach the Rams for just one more fall season. But Ingalls has said he was under the impression that the coaching arrangement was open-ended.

The girls soccer job was advertised last month.

There were seven applicants for the job, Ervin said after Monday’s meeting, including one applicant from the Lewiston area.

Ingalls said in a phone interview Monday night that he applied for the job but did not get an interview.

Smith, a Bangor-area physician, had served as a volunteer assistant coach under Ingalls for three years. He has coached several different age groups in the Bangor Soccer Club since 1999. He was also a soccer player at Ohio State, Ervin added, and this is his first position as a varsity head coach.

“He’s well-known to many people who are involved in soccer in the area,” Ervin said during the meeting. “… He’s familiar with the program, he knows how it runs, he’s worked with us before, and I think he’s going to really bring soccer knowledge to the program as well as in my opinion the right temperament to work with the young ladies.”

Several members of the audience said they were concerned Ervin was making a statement about Ingalls’ own demeanor with the team, but after the meeting ended, Ervin stressed he was only talking about Smith.

Ingalls led the Rams to a 141-38-11 record, including a trip to the 2003 Eastern Maine Class A final. Bangor went 9-5 last year.

Ingalls said Smith was not a member of the coaching staff in the 2003 season.

He also didn’t rule out a return to coaching somewhere else.

“I’ve been doing it for so long. I’ll always enjoy coaching,” said Ingalls, who estimated he’s coached around 50 soccer, basketball, track and field, cross country, and gymnastics teams in his 30 years of teaching in the Bangor and Hermon school systems.

“I’m disappointed and appalled at the way it’s all been handled,” Ingalls added. “I’ve always taught the girls about loyalty and integrity and I believe all that is lost.”