Chris Beene enters his eighth season as head coach of the cross country and track and field teams at South Plains College.

Since his arrival in Levelland, Beene has led the Texans and Lady Texans to a combined 18 NJCAA championships in men's and women's cross country, half-marathon, indoor track and outdoor track, all of which have flooded in since 2006.

The 2010-11 school year saw Beene's teams rack up four NJCAA national titles, the first coming when the Lady Texans claimed a share of the NJCAA Half-Marathon title in November by posting a score of 17 points. The following March the Lady Texan indoor track and field team dominated the field by nearly 100 points to lay claim to a second NJCAA championship of the school year and then both the Texans and Lady Texans swept the outdoor track titles in May, marking the third consecutive year they have combined to sweep the competition.

In all, Beene helped lead his athletes to a combined 28 individual and relay national championships as well as a grand total of 55 All-American certificates during the 2010-11 seasons. For their efforts, Natoya Goule and Jura Levy were named co-athletes of the meet after both indoor and outdoor NJCAA Championship meets. Beene earned the distinction of being named the Women's Indoor and Outdoor Coach of the Meet as well as the Men's Outdoor Coach of the Meet.

Beene helped guide six athletes to nine All-American awards during the 2009 cross country season that culminated with the Texan men defending their title at the NJCAA half-marathon held in Overland Park, Kansas. Later that spring, Beene coached Kelly Closse (shot put, discus), Colleen Felix (javelin), Shakeeri Cole (800), and Marcelis Lynch (800) to individual titles in addition to helping guide the 4x800 meter relay team easily win in Hutchinson where both the men's and women's teams took home team titles for the second year in a row. For his efforts, Beene was later voted by his peers as Coach of the Year for both men and women.

The 2008-09 fall and spring seasons may very well have been the best in a rich history of South Plains College track and cross country teams as SPC won five championships out of eight possible, with the SPC men coming just short of sweeping all four. It all started with the Texans coming away with a half-marathon championship in the fall. The Texan and Lady Texan track teams then blew away their competition in the spring by sweeping each of the NJCAA indoor and outdoor national championships and are only one-of-four schools to ever win all four titles in the same year at any collegiate level. The Texan cross country team finished only 12 points away from taking the cross country title.

In the last six years, Beene has coached athletes that currently hold 9 NJCAA meet or national records. His athletes who have won over 100 individual and relay national championships, and a host of all-American awards.

Beene came to South Plains College from Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, where he was named Women's NAIA Region 5 and 6 Coach of the Year in 2003 and 2004. He also earned Men's Sooner Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2003 and 2004 and also won the NAIA Sooner Athletic Conference championship in 2003.

Before Wayland, Beene served four seasons as an assistant coach at Texas Tech University where he was in charge of coaching the multi-events, pole vault, and javelin. He has also had previous coaching stints at Abilene Christian University and Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

During his time at Abilene Christian, Beene was part of 12 NCAA Division II national team championships. He also coached two decathletes to individual national championships as well.

Additionally, Beene coached Stephen Moore and Trafton Rodgers. Rodgers went on to win the USATF Men's Heptathlon Indoor Championships, while Moore won a USA Indoor championship and went on to place fourth at the World Indoor Championships in Barcelona, Spain. Both have competed in the United States Olympic Trials, with Rodgers in 2000 and Moore in 2000 as well as 2004. Moore also won a gold medal in the decathlon at the Pan-American Games.

A former all-American decathlete, Beene received both his bachelor and master degrees in kinesiology from Angelo State University. He and his wife, Corye, have a daughter, Faith, and a son, Sage.