NATCHEZ — For a Cathedral team that went 5-5 in 2008, the 2009 season has a lot of hope.

But in order for the Green Wave to have a winning year, a lot of young players will have to step up.

The Green Wave will lose nine seniors to graduation, meaning eight juniors and five sophomores will be filling in holes.

“We lost our whole offensive line besides Michael Roboski, and we lost all of our backs,” Cathedral coach Craig Beesley said. “Our only other returner is Daniel Huffines, so we have to replace nine on offense.”

The defense is in the same situation, Beesley said.

All the starting linebackers from the 2008 team will be gone.

With all these holes to fill, the Green Wave got started early with its first week of spring practices.

Cathedral had practice Monday through Thursday this week and will practice four more days next week before the school year ends.

“We’re putting in a new offense, so we’re trying to get the terminology down in the spring,” Beesley said. “We have a whole new system, both on offense and defense, and we’re looking for some leadership and some guys to step up for us.”

The Green Wave will practice in shorts for the entire spring and won’t put on pads until the fall.

But with the team playing a jamboree the second Friday of school, Beesley said he needed to get as much in place as possible.

“We’re looking for (sophomore linebacker) Adam Kaiser and (freshman guard) Josh Callaway to do some big things,” he said. “But right now it’s still early. Being in shorts, it’s hard to tell what everyone’s going to do.”

Every game the Green Wave played last year was a regional game, but Cathedral will get a break with this year’s new districts.

Both Puckett and Stringer, which beat Cathedral by a combined 58 points, have moved up to 2A.

Now Cathedral has seven district games and three nondistrict contests.

“We’ve got an eight-team district next year,” Beesley said. “Right now we’ve got nine games scheduled, and we’re in the process of getting the 10th game approved by the MHSAA.”

Cathedral will play nondistrict contests between Loyd Star and Enterprise next season.