Lance Fleming

Communications Specialist @Abilene (Texas) Independent School District

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After graduating from Abilene Christian University in 1992 with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications, I worked full-time for the Abilene Reporter-News as a copy editor before becoming a sportswriter in February 1993. I worked at the ARN for five years, covering Texas high school athletics as well as the Dallas Cowboys (I spent a week in Phoenix in January 1996 covering Super Bowl XXX) before moving to Lubbock with my wife to work at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. While in Lubbock, I covered Texas Tech from the academic side and the Lubbock Independent School District. After about 7 months in Lubbock, we moved back to. Abilene after I took the job as the Sports Information Director at ACU, which was NCAA Division II at the time. I worked at ACU from August 1998 until I left in July 2019, when ACU was an NCAA Division I member. I served as SID before moving up to Assistant Director of Athletics for Media Relations and then, finally, ending my 21 years of service as the Associate Director of Athletics. I had the good fortune to chronicle student-athletes who went on to careers in the NFL, future Olympians, and the program's first team to advance to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 2019. I left ACU to join the team at the Abilene Independent School District in 2019, just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down. I spent more than three years as the Chief Communications Officer before moving to a new role in January 2022 as a Communications Specialist. Our district -- like most in Texas -- is facing a multi-million dollar budget shortfall, and my job is being eliminated on June 30, 2025. In addition to my work, I've been married to Jill for 26 years. We have three children: Rex, Ashley, and Ryan. Rex passed away in November 2012 after a two-year battle against brain cancer. Ashley is a 19-year-old freshman at Abilene Christian University, and Ryan is a 13-year-old 7th-grader and aspiring golfer.