By Tommy Hicks, Press-Register

MOBILE, Alabama -- The opportunity to return to his home state and to have an impact on the program's future growth top the list of reasons Mobile native John Hartwell will be the next director of athletics at Troy University.

The university announced Wednesday night that Hartwell, in his ninth year in the Ole Miss athletic department and in his third year as the senior executive associate AD , the school's No. 2 administrator in athletics, will be officially named the Trojans new AD in a Friday press conference on campus. Hartwell said he is looking forward to the new job.

"I'm greatly excited about the opportunity,'' he said in a telephone interview with the Press-Register. "Getting back to my home state has been a 25-year journey since graduating from college. If you count (the time at college) its really been 29 years since I have been a true resident of Alabama, more specifically of South Alabama, and I'm just so grateful and thankful for the opportunity that Dr. (Jack) Hawkins (Troy's chancellor) is providing."

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