Jeremiah Allison has made a habit of sacking the quarterback while achieving a 4.25 grade point average. Photo by Jason Lewis
Allison was presented with the Student Athlete of the Week award by Army Sergeants Katrina Heape and James Jenkins. Photo by Jason Lewis
By Jason Lewis
Sentinel Sports Editor
jasonl@lasentinel.net
Jeremiah Allison may be the wrong person to argue with, especially if you play quarterback.
If Allison’s 4.25 grade point average does not convince you that you should not argue with him, maybe his 6’1” and 210 pounds frame will. The combination of incredible size, strength and speed, combined with a high level of intelligence, has made Allison a terror on the football field, where he had 20 sacks in both his sophomore and junior seasons.
Allison has played mostly defensive end at Dorsey, but this year he will play more at outside linebacker, where he is projected to play in college.
Rushing the passer has been a passion of Allison’s since he started playing Pop Warner football for the Demos when he was seven years old. Racking up sacks has almost become routine for him.
“Getting to the quarterback became an every game thing,” Allison said. “I expected to get to him.”
Allison’s skill has led to numerous scholarship offers, including offers from UCLA, Arizona, Boise St, Colorado, SMU, Nevada, UC Davis, Duke and Yale.
Some schools on that list do not just take the best athletes, they look for the brightest students, which Allison has prepared himself to be.
“It’s just time management,” Allison said. “It’s a skill that you have to get to go to college. So I took a course at UCLA called the VIPS Scholar program, which really prepped me for the college life. It was all about time management, social life, and academics.”
Math and Science are Allison’s favorite subjects for a simple reason.
“Once you get the formula it’s never going to change,” Allison said.
Allison has not made up his mind yet about what he wants to do outside of football when he grows up, but he’s thinking either law or anesthesiology.
“I was thinking law because I love to debate, and I’m in the law magnet here at Dorsey,” Allison said. “So I wanted to pursue law. But I was taking my chemistry course and I was talking to our Athletic Director, who is also my chemistry teacher, Mr. Simms, and he was telling me about anesthesiology. He told me that they make a lot of money. Of course it’s not all about the money, it’s the passion, but it sounds like a very interesting field.”
Which ever field Allison chooses, he will always look for a good debate.
“We can argue about anything,” Allison said. “Whether Kobe is better than LeBron, or whether the sky is blue or purple. It doesn’t matter.”
When Allison is not sacking a quarterback or debating about scientific theories, he is either watching Sports Center, or performing community service at Word of God Baptist Church.
One thing that is not up for debate is that Allison loves being a Dorsey Don.
“Being a Dorsey Don, it’s a tradition,” Allison said. “It’s a name that you want to have on your chest. I cherish and love the name. Just being able to play for all the people on the wall in Coach Knox’s office is just an honor.”
Allison is a very impressive young man, and when Army Recruiter Sergeant James Jenkins presented him with a Student/Athlete of the Week plaque, Jenkins noticed that he was humble, articulate, and ambitious. Jenkins also noted that with Allison’s size, strength, and intelligence, that Allison is “like a shark on land, like the deadliest killing machine on land.”
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