Heather Moody
Heather Moody

Bio

Heather Moody started playing water polo as a break from swimming. Her swim coach thought it was really important for athletes to take a break from swimming but wanted them to still be in the water. Heather grew up in Albuquerque, NM swimming and playing water polo for Duke City Aquatics with her older sister and younger brother. She made the Junior National Team when she was 14. The Coach of the team happened to coach club polo in Modesto, CA and offered Heather a chance to play at a higher level during the summers. So every summer of her high school years she would come out and play polo for Brent Bohlender in Modesto. Those summers playing polo with the club gave her so many opportunities to grow as an athlete and a person.

Heather went to college at UC Santa Barbara on a swimming scholarship, and then transferred San Diego State to be a member of the Water Polo team.

Heather brings an international resume to American River College both as a player and a coach. She is a two-time Olympic medalist as a player, winning a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games. She also captained the USA Water Polo team a bronze medal finish in 2004. She led the Americans to gold medals at the 2003 FINA World Championships in Barcelona and at the 2003 Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic.

Following her playing career, Heather served on the USA coaching staff as an assistant for the 2008 Olympic team, helping lead the team to a silver medal in Beijing. She was also a member of the gold medal staff in 2012 in London.

Heather's resume includes numerous international events and prestigious honors. In April 2010, she was named the head coach of the U.S. Junior National Team and have been a coach at every level of the U.S. women's national team, including a stint as interim head coach at the 2005 FINA World Championships. In addition to being a two-time United States Water Polo Player of the Year (1999, 2001), Heather was also one of the first women to be elected into the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame, joining 2004 Olympic teammates Natalie Golda and Nicolle Payne in 2007 as the first three women to earn the distinction. In 2010 she was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.

Heather has also had the opportunity to grow as a coach working at four great colleges. The first two were with the Women’s teams at San Diego State and Long Beach Community College. She then furthered her growth with the great experiences to coach with the Men's and Women's teams at Golden West Community College and Long Beach State where she assisted for two years, and now as the head Women’s Coach at American River College.