As a young girl watching the Flying Queens and Pioneers basketball teams, Rhane Jeffress never thought she would someday be in charge of telling their stories and keeping track of their statistics while working as sports information director at Wayland Baptist University, all the while getting to witness some of the greatest athletic achievements in WBU’s history. What’s more, she never dreamed she would one day be recognized alongside many of the same people she idolized as a member of the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor.

“This is amazing, mostly because of all of the people that are already in (the Hall of Honor). So many of them I looked up to when I was a young girl and my grandparents took me to the Flying Queens and Pioneers games,” Rhane said. “I idolized those people growing up. Now I’m going to be with Susan Britton, Cheri Rapp, Breena Caldwell…”

Rhane grew up in nearby Hale Center and has many, many fond memories of attending Wayland basketball games with her grandparents, J.W. and Zelda Paschal.

“We went to every home game – and a few in Amarillo – when I was growing up. And granddaddy got me (legendary Queens coach) Harley Redin’s books. He put a goal up at their house and I would read those books and their step-by-step instructions and then go practice.”

She played basketball for the Hale Center Owlettes, but eventually her passion turned from playing sports to writing about them while attending Texas Tech University.

“I was a student intern in the sports information director’s office while attending Tech, writing a lot of feature stories on athletes for game programs and other things,” Rhane recalled. “I really enjoyed that.”

After marrying Tim Jeffress, the couple moved to Wichita, Kan., where Tim was transferred with his job at what was then MBPXL (later Cargill Meat Solutions). Rhane worked as a women's basketball statistician for the SID’s office at Wichita State University, from which she graduated with a degree in journalism in 1982. She was also a student intern at WSU, and after graduation became a video editor/copy writer for the NBC television affiliate in Wichita.

When Tim was transferred to Dodge City, Kan., Rhane went to work at St. Mary of the Plains College where she pulled double duty as the SID and public relations director. After four years, she quit that job so she could raise the couple’s only child, Todd.

The family lived in Friona and Fort Morgan, Colo., where Rhane worked as senior coordinator in a high school counselor’s office before settling in Plainview. After working for a year for the Plainview Chamber of Commerce as director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Rhane landed at Wayland in August 1999.

“Danny Andrews (former Plainview Daily Herald editor and current director of alumni services at Wayland) told Dr. Feris (former WBU athletics director Greg Feris) about me, and he offered me a job,” Rhane recalled. “I jumped at it.”

At the time, Wayland offered seven sports: volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s track & Field/cross country, baseball and men’s golf.

“I was just part-time starting out,” Rhane recalled.

She had her hands full writing stories about Wayland’s highly-successful athletics teams and student-athletes, a job that included publishing media guides, informational pamphlets, game programs and newsletters.

“One person doing all of those media guides wasn’t easy,” she said.

Another big part of an SID’s duties is keeping accurate statistics, which Rhane did at countless games both at home and, at times, on the road. She served as the host SID for numerous NAIA regional and conference baseball, volleyball, track & field and cross country championships, and was the NAIA Region VI SID for one year in the early 2000s.

Among her other duties was nominating Wayland’s deserving student-athletes for all-American honors as well as various scholar awards. Rhane also brought the university’s record books up-to-date after several years of neglect, another monumental task.

She also helped usher in several new facets of sports information, including live streaming of statistics, video broadcasting and Wayland’s athletics web site.

“I helped design and was the sole contributor for three different websites during my tenure,” she said.

While the hours were long and work often tedious, Rhane said she truly enjoyed it.

“The thing I enjoyed most was getting to know the kids. There were some amazing young men and women that came through during my time there. I love keeping up with a lot of them on Facebook, seeing what they have made out of their lives.”

Rhane got to keep close tabs on son Todd’s outstanding four-year baseball career with the Pioneers in  the mid- to late 2000s.

“I think I only missed one of his games his entire time at Wayland,” she said, adding that many of Todd’s “baseball buddies” have become her friends, as well.

She also grew close to many of her student workers, in addition to work-study students. Many times that resulted from being in her office after hours, long after coaches and players had gone home.

“I’d be the only one in the building on Saturday nights or on Sunday afternoons, and those kids who did the laundry – guys like Daniel Franklin, Ryan Silvas, Rodrigo Silva and Johnny Terra – would come in and we’d visit. And I had an awesome group of student workers over the years. I couldn’t have gotten done everything that I did without their help.”

After close to 10 years working part-time, Rhane became full-time in 2008 as Wayland continued to add sports, ultimately growing to 18 when she left in 2012.

Along the way, she witnessed some great achievements at Wayland. Among them were firsts like the 2004 men’s basketball team advancing to the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament championship, the volleyball team’s first SAC Tournament crown in 2008, and the baseball team advancing to the NAIA playoffs for the first time in 2009.

“Some of those men’s basketball teams were a lot of fun to watch,” she said. “There were real character guys like Danny Storey and Matt Garnett, great shooters like Ty Harrelson, big jumpers like Nate Bridges and Clifton Clarida, and guys who were just characters, like Jeff Caha.”

Rhane recalled an outstanding week by baseballer J.J. Peirce when, thanks in part to her efforts, he was recognized in Sports Illustrated for what she called “an amazing week. He was just crushing the ball.”

Another outstanding memory was getting to witness Kennedy Kithuka winning the 2010 NAIA Men’s Cross Country Championships in Vancouver, Wash.

“It was wet and cold and muddy, and Kennedy was lapping people,” she said. “Really, watching Kennedy’s whole career was just awesome.”

Rhane and Tim retired to their home in the mountains near Bailey, Colo., where Rhane enjoys hiking, volunteering and serving as a mentor mom for the local Mothers of Pre-Schoolers (MOPS) chapter.

Oh, and, like always, keeping up with Wayland Baptist athletics.