BILLINGS — Billings West junior Sean Klem stands alone atop Montana's high school boys long jump leaderboard.
Klem popped a leap of 22 feet, 8½ inches at the Billings Invite in mid-April, coming within inches of the meet record. That jump marked a near three-foot improvement from his sophomore season-best.
"I definitely expected to go really far but definitely not as far as I went," Klem said. "I went into the Billings Invite, I shocked myself and went far. I think I can go farther at upcoming meets."
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Klem gets to learn from one of the best in the business in West jumps coach Kevin Close. Close is a 2011 graduate of Bozeman High School and earned multiple all-Big Sky Conference honors during his four years jumping at Montana State.
"He just coaches us great. He gives us great demonstrations of what we're doing. Sometimes describing it, it doesn't always go through mentally," Klem said. "He's a phenomenal coach. Everything he does makes sense for us."
"He's really been a student of the events. He's totally bought in and kind of done everything he's needed to do," Close said. "I think the success we're seeing here is, more than anything, a product of his process over the last year-plus."
That internal drive has pushed Klem to the elite of Class AA, but he has some external motivation serving him well, too.
"My mom. My mom is great motivation," Klem said. "My mom always tells me to be great and she knows I'm capable of great things. She's always in the back of my mind when I'm jumping and whatever I'm doing."
Klem aims to be great in late May as he has his sights set on the top of the podium.
