Beard graduated from high school from McCullough High School in The Woodlands, Texas. He was a student assistant at the University of Texas at Austin under coach Tom Penders graduating in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology.
He is the former Angelo State and McMurry University basketball coach. He received a Masters of Education from Abilene Christian University where he served as a graduate assistant in 1998. After serving as a student assistant at the University of Texas at Austin and graduate assistant at the University of the Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian University Beard started out at the University of North Texas where he stayed from 1997-1999.
From there, he was hired as head coach at Fort Scott Community College where the first year he coached the team to a 19–12 record and its first winning season in 8 years.
In 2000, he was hired on as the head coach at Seminole State College. In his one year there he went 25-6 and finished ranked 14th in the country.
Following that season, he was hired as an assistant and later associate head coach at Texas Technical University to work under the legendary Bob Knight. During his time at Texas Technical, they went to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament four times along with a trip to the National Institute of Technology Final Four.
Beard also spent one year as head coach for the South Carolina Warriors of the American Basketball Association, where he led the team to a 29-2 record.
In 2012, he was hired as head coach at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas where he spent one season. In March 2013, he was hired as the sixth head coach at Angelo State University. Little Rock
On April 8, 2015, Beard was named the head coach of Little Rock.
Little Rock was awarded a 12 seed and knocked off fifth-seeded Purdue 85-83 in double overtime to advance to the second round.
Beard has three daughters, Avery, Ella, and Margo.
