It’s barely past noon on Sunday and the dimly lit Cliff Room Sports Bar is surprisingly full. The usuals sitting at the bar are cracking jokes and predicting the outcome of the 49ers-Rams game as a petite woman slides onto the cool red leather of the booth next to her sister Linda.
“Did the City College football team win?” Valerie Vallejo-Clark, the co-owner of the bar, asked eagerly while tapping her feet on the linoleum floor.
Last summer Vallejo-Clark attended the NFL’s Coaching Academy at Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village. Not only was she the only woman out of the 150 participants, she is now the only woman in Southern California to be NFL certified.
“It’s so non-traditional, but I feel so passionate about it,” Vallejo-Clark said.
Born and raised in Santa Barbara, Vallejo-Clark has been the Administrative Assistant to the Director of Admissions and Records, Allison Scott, at SBCC for the past four years. Specializing in commencement, the City College alum also worked at UCSB, the University of Texas, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“Getting your diploma is the best,” Vallejo-Clark said, responding to why commencement is her favorite program. “These are happy people.”
Now that she is officially on the NFL payroll, Vallejo-Clark works on-call at various Athletes For Life (AFL) events throughout the area. AFL, a non-profit organization founded by former NFL running back Greg Bell, promotes a drug and alcohol free lifestyle through youth participation in sports.
Recently, she worked alongside another former NFL running back, Roger Craig, at the NFL Player Development Program. The six-day event was geared toward 10-14 year olds serious about their football careers.
“There were about 80 kids there from all over the world, even one little boy from England,” she said.
The football enthusiast has coached the Bantam Raiders, a team of boys ranging in age from seven to 10, for the third season last year for the Santa Barbara Youth Football League.
“I think it’s all about the boys. It’s all about building a relationship with those little guys,” Vallejo-Clark said. “You get very close very fast. I adopted 27 boys last year.”
While sitting in the same booth at the Cliff Room, decked out in one of her favorite Randall Cunningham jerseys and a football-themed charm necklace she made herself, Vallejo-Clark reminisced about the days when her two brothers played youth football.
Vallejo-Clark and her husband have co-owned the sports bar for the past ten years after her father-in-law passed it down to the couple.
“It’s a good old local place,” she said. “I call it the ‘Cheers’ bar of Santa Barbara.”
These days Vallejo-Clark can be seen rooting on the SBCC Vaqueros at home games as the team water girl.
“It’s so cool to be on the field, I feel so comfortable there,” she said. “Those guys are so big! I’m use to the little ones at AFL.”
The world of football has traditionally been male-dominated, however Vallejo-Clark is now changing that.
“Three years ago I was determined to be NFL certified,” she said. “Now I want to open more doors for women. If we could get a halftime performance at an NFL game, they would be hooked!”