Bethlehem Catholic boys’ basketball coach Ray Barbosa resigned Monday morning and will take over as the new coach at Executive Education Academy Charter School in Allentown.

It ends a short, but highly-successful, three-year run for Barbosa at Becahi, as the Hawks won back-to-back District 11 4A titles the past two seasons and reached the PIAA semifinals last season before falling to mighty Imhotep Charter.

Hawks’ athletic director Chris Domyan just came back from vacation to the news of Barbosa switching gears of coaching at the new charter school and understands that Barbosa’s departure leaves a hole.

“It’s a big loss,” Domyan said. “We just got to move on. I’ll put together a search relatively soon and go through the process. We have an attractive program and I’m sure we’ll find a solid coach just like before.”

The Hawks won the East Penn Conference for the first time last season, finishing the year at 28-4 following a 65-60 loss to Imhotep.

Barbosa is the charter’s first big-name coaching hire, as this will be the first year EEACS will be joining the PIAA in athletics.

Barbosa was not available for comment before Press deadlines, but Domyan didn’t feel rushed to get a hire immediately.

“You always want to get these type of things done quickly because of how much goes on with sports during the school year,” he said. “It’s better for us to know about this in the summer, then in the fall.”