A native of New Middletown, Ohio, Danielle Carson starred scholastically at nearby Springfield Local High School and opted to attend her hometown university, Youngstown State, when it came time to decide which college she would attend upon graduation.
Originally recruited by then Head Coach Joyce Ramsey, she inked a national letter of intent to play for the Penguins despite Ramsey's retirement as coach, and played her first season for Jeff Cohen.
It was during her freshman campaign that the Penguins began their first season of competition in the Ohio Valley Conference (they did not participate in regular-season play, just the post-season tournament) and a year later, became full-fledged conference participants.
A "total" player in all aspects of the game, she could shoot, rebound, find the open player and in the process, play the opponents' top scorer tough defensively.
Playing her final three seasons for current women's Head Coach Ed DiGregorio, she scored 1,697 career points for the Penguins during her career, earning four letters while serving as captain during both her junior and senior seasons. She became the fifth Penguin cager to score 1,000-plus points, accomplishing that feat during her junior campaign in 1984-85. That aforementioned point total still ranks as the third best all-time while only nine Penguin cagers to date have ever reached that scoring milestone.
The team's 44-62 overall mark during her time spent at YSU is a little deceiving because she helped the school make the transition from a Division II program, to its current Division I status during the early days of their association with the Ohio Valley Conference.
Not only a noted scorer or top defender, she was equally adept as a point guard and proved that by dishing out 573 career assists which still ranks her a top the list in that category. With 269 assists in a season (as a senior in 1985-86), she set the all-time season mark which still stands today while during a stellar four-year career, she averaged no less than 6.4 caroms per outing (7.1 for a career) for a season and never averaged less than 12.8 points per game (a tops of 17.5 per outing as a sophomore during the 1983-84 campaign) as well.
With 725 career field goals made, she still ranks third all-time in that category while she is second all-time with 247 career free throws made, and ranks third with 13 free throws made in a single game. Her 749 career rebounds currently ranks fourth on the all-time list as well.
She received her AB degree in Physical Education in 1989, and is currently employed at General Motors (Lordstown) as an assembler, a position that she has held the past year and a half.
She most recently coached the junior high girls' squad at her alma mater, Springfield Local High School.
