Coach-Rachel Ruano
 

Coach Bethani Black has been at American River College for the past 8 years.  She is a full time coach and physical education instructor for women’s water polo, swimming and diving.  Coach Black was born and raised in Southern California.  She began swimming at the age of 12, and followed it through college.  She is alumni of CSU Fresno, where she earned her Bachelors in Kinesiology and then her Masters. 

Most recently the ARC women’s water polo team won the Big 8 Conference Title, Nor-Cal Championships, and finished 2^nd in the state.  Over the past 10 season the team has qualified for post season competition 8 of ten seasons and has won 3 conference titles, and 3 trips to the state finals.  Over the past 10 seasons there have been 25 All-Nor Cal Players and 20 All-Americans as well as Anne Scott named as Nor-Cal Athlete of the Year and Ali Pierce, Anne Scoot and Rochelle Yomogida named to the All-State teams for two consecutive years.  Coach Black has also earned Conference coach of the year four times.

In her free time she enjoys spending time with her husband, Eric Black, the men’s water polo and swim coach at American River College and their 2 daughters.  As a family they love to water ski, swim camp and hang out together with family and friends.

Coach Rachel Ruano has earned the honor of Big 8 Coach of the Year for the past two consecutive years while at American River College.  She has been a fantastic addition to the aquatics staff and brings a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge to the program.  As a sophomore in high school Rachel was selected to the US youth national team, as a junior in high school she moved to the junior national team.  Following, high school Rachel received a scholarship to San Diego State University as the starting goalie for four years.  Rachel was selected to the US National team in 1996 and continued to play thru 2001.  She was the first alternate to the 2000 Olympics.  From 2000-2002 Rachel served as the assistant coach to Karin Crawford at SDSU.  Rachel left the SDSU to be the assistant for the National team through the 2004 Olympics.

Following the 2004 Olympics Rachel married local Rio Americano High School girls coach Raf Ruano and settled in Sacramento and began coaching at American River College.  She and her husband currently run one of the largest US water polo clubs in the country, American River Water Polo Club.  The club in addition to her two young sons keeps Rachel extremely busy and well connected with the water polo world.