Danny Powell grew up in the small southwest Alabama town of Leroy and played a variety of sports in high school. Powell traces his coaching roots to his high school coach, Jack McMillan, who coached Leroy from 1959-1967.

He graduated from Leroy in 1968 and attended Livingston University but did not play any sports in college. He has a Bachelor and Masters degree in Math Education from Livingston. After graduating from college, Powell went into coaching and also taught math.

He bounced around during the early part of his coaching career, making short stops at Washington County High School, where he served as a co-head coach in football, Sumter Academy, Lee-Scott and Jackson Academy. He led Sumter Academy's basketball team to an AISA runner-up finish and guided Lee-Scott to an AISA football championship in 1988.

Powell returned to Leroy in 1990 as the head baseball coach and won three state titles in 2001, 2007 and 2008. During this time, the Bears baseball team had a 186-98 record. They won six area championships and four county tournaments. He was the defensive coordinator on Leroy's 2004 Class 2A football championship team.

When head football coach Scott Phelps decided to leave Leroy following the 2005 season after 10 years at the helm, Powell applied for the job. Coach Powell led the Bears to four state championships in five seasons at the school from 2006-10 before moving up the road to Jackson in 2011.

In his first season with the Aggies, Powell's team won another state title with a perfect 15-0 season.

Danny Powell teams reeled off fifty-one consecutive region wins between 2006 and 2014.

Coach Powell has won a total of seven state football championships and three baseball championships is his coaching career. He has a career record of 186-75-1 which spans from 1978-2023. He was named into the Alabama Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.

Coach Powell has received many honors while coaching football and baseball through the years, among them are Coach of the Year in 2A in 2001, 2006, and 4A 2011.