Percival graduated for Troy University’s broadcast journalism program and minored in sports information. While at Troy, she worked in their sports information  department and built up her network. As a result of the contacts she built up at Troy, when ESPN was looking for someone to report some of the Sunbelt conferences games , Percival’s name came to the front of the conversations. At the young age of 22, Danielle Percival was on ESPN, which for most people in the sports broadcasting industry, is a dream.  “It was always a dream of mine to work ESPN so being able to accomplish that was monumental for me.”

Being such a young female in the field did not set up Percival for an easy path into the industry. Sports media is dominated by male voices, and Percival needed to breakthrough. “Realize that everyone was where you were at some point” says Percival. She says this when asked how she dealt with the difficulty of being a young woman in her industry.

Percival came to Piedmont in 2013 to head up the college’s sports communications department. She has a solid team of Chuck Tidmore and Joseph Garwood and several student workers to help her out. “it takes a special person to be able to work for a young female and also something very important to be in the hiring process” Percival says the key to success is remaining confident in your abilities. “Be confident in who you are. Authenticity is something people connect with.”