When talking about the top players or prospects in the state of New Mexico during the 2008 season, anyone who leaves out Artesia LB Dallas Bollema is crazy. The game of football today is built on speed and college coaches recruit defensive players that can do two things, run and hit. Bollema can do both of these things, as good as any player in this state. This past season, he totaled more than 150 tackles and was a force all over the field. He brings a great deal of speed and when he gets to the contact zone, he makes contact. At this point, Bollema has no early offers to speak of, but with Artesia HS being one of the most respected programs in the state, it’s only a matter of time before colleges take notice.
PrepNewMexico.com: What is your height, weight, 40 times, bench and squat?
Bollema: 6’2, 190, 4.65, 270, 340
PrepNewMexico.com: What honors did you receive this past season?
Bollema: I’m not real sure about all district, for our team I was voted defensive player of the year, and the Mecham award, which is given to the player with the most tackles on the year.
PrepNewMexico.com: What was your best memory from this past season?
Bollema: From this past season the best memory was by far taking state. Playing on ESPN was also awesome, we lost that game against Clovis but he experience was great. Individually I played really well that game.
PrepNewMexico.com: What are you doing to prepare for next season?
Bollema: Right now I play basketball, but I also am lifting weights three to four days a week to help my strength.
PrepNewMexico.com: What are your strengths as a football player?
Bollema: I’m good at reading keys, it really helps me make plays and get to plays on the field. I’m also a pretty good tackler.
PrepNewMexico.com: What are your weaknesses as a football player?
Bollema: Right now I would like to gain weight and also speed. To gain weight I’m really hitting it hard in the weight room and speed, basketball really helps with my feet.
PrepNewMexico.com: What do you like most about the game of football?
Bollema: I really like the fact that you can be aggressive as a player, add in fact that you get to play with all your buddies and the experience is great.
PrepNewMexico.com: Who is the best player you have ever played against?
Bollema: That’s a hard one, but I would have to probably say Manuel Robles from Clovis, he’s a great runner and we had a hard time stopping him. He was really physical as a runner, good player.
PrepNewMexico.com: What are your aspirations as far as playing football in college?
Bollema: That’s a really big goal that I have, playing football in college is something that I have wanted to do my whole life, I would really like to play D1 football, but I’ll play at any school that gives me a shot. Right now I would say that my top 5 would be New Mexico, Texas Tech, Colorado, UCLA and Oklahoma. Those would be my dream schools at this point.
PrepNewMexico.com: Name some teammate’s people need to look out for next season?
Bollema: Patrick Lopez LB/FS, Derek Montoya RB/WR and also Jacob Olivas another RB.
PrepNewMexico.com: What can we expect from your team next year?
Bollema: I think we will be pretty good; we have the most defensive returnees that Artesia has had in a long time. Offensively we will be pretty good again, we lost some players to graduation but we always have guys that are ready to play at Artesia.
This past season Artesia QB Landry Jones was one of the most coveted signal callers in the nation, because of that several colleges came out to New Mexico to see for themselves what all the hype was about. That is a huge benefit to all Artesia players, because when those colleges came out to see Jones, they also had a chance to see other stud players at Artesia up close and personal.
We would like to thank Dallas for his time; we would also like to thank Randall Hamilton for his help with this interview.
Remember to check back with PrepNewMexico.com for news regarding Dallas; we are working on getting highlight tapes of Bollema posted. At that time we will also write up a full “Tale of the Tape” piece, which will break him down as a prospect.
Have a player we should feature in an interview? Email us: newmexicoinsider@yahoo.com