NATCHEZ — After 40 years of service from Cathedral athletic director Roy Garcia, the school has hired someone young enough to serve another 40 years should he want to.

With Garcia retiring at the end of the school year, Cathedral has hired current Trinity Episcopal strength and conditioning and assistant football and girls basketball coach Josh Loy to take his place.

Loy, a 1999 Cathedral graduate, said getting this opportunity at the young age of 27 is a dream come true for him.

“I feel blessed to be given this opportunity,” Loy said. “This is a job I’ve always dreamed about having and these opportunities don’t come around very often.”

Loy said replacing Garcia would be tough after all his years of service, but he feels he is up to the challenge.

“It’s definitely a challenge to follow someone like coach Garcia,” Loy said. “He’s got some really big shoes to fill. I don’t know if one person can ever fill his shoes, but I’m excited that Cathedral is giving me the opportunity to try.”

Garcia said he was excited about Loy taking over for him at the end of the school year.

“I’m more excited than he is to tell you the truth,” Garcia said. “Our goal was to get someone who is young, energetic and enthusiastic. He’s all three of those things.”

Garcia said he will be working with Loy over the next couple of months to transition him into the position.

“I’m not moving (to Texas) until July so we will work hand in hand until then,” Garcia said. “It will be a smooth transition. He’ll learn the ropes quick.”

Cathedral principal Pat Sanguinetti said he made the decision to hire Loy after talking to Garcia and Loy about the position.

“I talked to (Garcia) about all the possible hires (for the position),” Sanguinetti said. “He is very close to Josh and told me he’d be an excellent candidate. I was leaning toward hiring Josh the whole time.”

Sanguinetti said he hoped that Loy was at the right age where he would want to stay at Cathedral for a very long time.

“We were lucky that we had coach Garcia here for 40 years,” Sanguinetti said. “Josh is at the right age and I hope he’ll stay here 40 years as well.”

While 40 years might be a little bit ambitious, Loy said he was planning on staying at his alma mater for a long time to come.

“I don’t know if I’ll be here 40 years, but I told someone else the other day that this will be my last job,” Loy said. “I’ve always wanted to come back to Cathedral and I plan on being there a long time.”