UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Penn State women’s basketball announces the addition of Danielle Edwards to staff as an Assistant Coach and Director of Recruiting. Edwards joins head coach of the Lady Lions Tanisha Wright ahead of the 2026-27 season with seven years of coaching staff experience having coached nine all-conference selections and impacting one Sweet 16 appearance. The Perry Hall, Maryland native comes to Penn State after a most recent year spent at Rutgers as an Assistant Coach and Director of Recruiting Operations.
Wright said, “I am thrilled to have Dani join our staff as an Assistant Coach and Director of Recruiting. Her experience as a student-athlete and coaching professional will be instrumental to our program and our recruiting operation. Dani is coming in with positive energy, sharp organization, and fresh ideas to help us elevate our program. I am excited to get to work and continue building this program together.”
Edwards has plentiful experience in women’s college basketball, first as a four-year letterwinner at Clemson and then transitioning into a coaching role following her graduation. She spent the 2025-26 season working on the Rutgers women’s basketball staff, spearheading the recruiting efforts for the Scarlet Knights while assisting with practice planning and scouting reports as an assistant coach.
Prior to her stint in Piscataway, N.J., Edwards served in multiple different roles at SMU from 2021-25. She was first hired by head coach Toyelle Wilson as the Director of Player Personnel and was promoted to an assistant coach and assistant recruiting coordinator in 2021 and head recruiting coordinator in in 2023. Edwards helped SMU to a fourth-place finish in the American Athletic Conference in her second season, the team’s highest conference finish in program history. Also in her second season on the Hilltop, she helped the Mustangs finish with a 17-13 record while earning their third-straight bid to the WNIT. SMU finished the season ranked second in the AAC in scoring defense (58.3) while placing three Mustangs on All-AAC honors lists.
Upon graduating from Clemson, Edwards was hired as the Director of Player Personnel at Michigan from 2019-2021. Throughout her time in Ann Arbor, she assisted the coaching staff and developed student-athletes on and off the court.
Edwards was a four-year letterwinner at Clemson, earning her degree in sports communications in 2019. Throughout her career as a Tiger, she etched her name in the record books. Finishing her career ranked first in careers starts (123), third in steals (291), fourth in steals per game (2.38) and 14th in career scoring (1,274). She was one of three players in program history to reach 1,000 career points, 300 assists and 250 steals. Edwards was named to the All-Defensive team in back-to-back years (2018, 2019). She was also a four-time ACC All-Academic team honoree. As a Tiger, Edwards served as a team captain and was a representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. In 2019, she participated in the WBCA “So You Want to Be a Coach” program and interned in Clemson’s communications department.