Prior to his passing, Quintana had been working out with his nephew and youth wrestlers at the Selma Youth Wrestling Club.
"It's a big loss for the wrestling community," former longtime Fresno State coach Dennis DeLiddo -- Quintana's college coach -- told the Fresno Bee. "He probably didn't have an enemy in the world."
"Nobody disliked Gary. He always had a smile on his face."
The Fresno State Bulldog wrestling program -- which will return to the mats this fall for the first time in over a decade -- posted the following message on its Facebook page:
"The Fresno State wrestling family lost a great man yesterday. Gary Quintana you will be missed. Thank your dedication to the Valley."
Quintana made his mark on wrestling in the Fresno area over the course of two decades.
As a wrestler at Selma High School, Quintana was a California state champ at 133 pounds as a senior and three-time state medalist. After graduating in 1991, Quintana continued with his mat career at Fresno State under DeLiddo, where he was a two-time NCAA championships qualifier and conference champion.
Quintana then launched a coaching career in wrestling in California that lasted until his death. He coached at a trio of local high schools, first as an assistant coach at Clovis West and Bullard, then as head coach at Clovis North. Most recently he was the coach at Granite Ridge Middle School.
Quintana was welcomed into the Selma (High School) Hall of Fame in 2013.
"Wrestling has helped mold me into the person I am today," Quintana told his hometown paper, the Selma Enterprise, at the time of his induction into his alma mater's hall of fame. "The successes I've had are all due to the place where I'm from and the people I was around. I wouldn't take anything back for the world. I would do it all again."
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