Loyola High Volleyball Star Dillon Klein Keeps His Family’s Athletic Pedigree Alive
You might say it is all in the genes for Loyola High School volleyball player Dillon Klein. The Cubs junior is also an outside hitter on the 2020 U.S. Boys Youth National Training Team and has grown up in Pacific Palisades in a family full of All-Americans. His grandfather, Bob Klein, won a national championship as the tight end at USC in 1967 and went on to play pro football for the LA Rams and San Diego Chargers in the 1970s. His dad, Jimmy, was an All-American football and volleyball player at Stanford. His aunt, Kristin, was a four-time volleyball All-American at Stanford and his uncles Patrick (volleyball) and Adam (basketball) and his cousins James (basketball), Caitlin (volleyball) and Michaela (volleyball) also played for the Cardinal. His sister Keili and cousin Kerry play on the volleyball team at Marymount High. Dillon, who has a vertical leap over three feet, has committed early to USC and hopes to lead Loyola to a CIF Southern Section title if and when the season begins on time in December, instead of the spring. Denny Lennon, the host of “Sports Stories with Denny Lennon,” recently caught up with Dillon for a podcast interview to discuss his decision to go to USC, his upcoming high school campaign, the competitive nature that comes with being part of an athletic family and his future goals. The program is syndicated on Cable-TV and airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9 a.m. on LA36. All programming is on: YouTube.com/SSDL or you can visit Lennon’s website at www.sportsstoriesdl.com/.
DL: Your aunt Kristin Keefe (your father Jimmy’s sister) played in the Olympics while your cousins, Michaela and Caitlin, have won three NCAA volleyball titles at Stanford. What have you picked up from watching them?
DK: So my aunt has a grass outdoor volleyball court in her yard and I’ve watched them work out. Men’s and women’s volleyball are pretty different sports. The women’s game focuses more on ball control whereas men’s is more about hitting the ball, getting kills off basically everything and terminating. When I went over to the Keefe’s house I’ve never experienced a harder float serve than my cousin Caitlin’s. I’m used to receiving hard jump serves and passing that, but her float serve is really gnarly and helped me become a better passer and get my ball control up so I could do better and bring it to boys volleyball. It’s fun to get to play with your cousins.
DL: Do you see yourself playing some beach volleyball after your indoor career is over?
DK: I’ve really only played beach volleyball at the Beach Club or Bel-Air Bay Club and with friends on like a short net, but it’s really fun. I enjoy playing beach a lot, but I don’t know if I could ever make a career out of it.
DL: I understand since you have been home more during COVID-19 you have also picked up golf. What do you like about that sport?
DK: To be honest, I was pretty bad at golf in the beginning and improving is a lot of fun in anything. Getting better at something is always very satisfying. My friends play it, my cousins play it and my grandpa plays it, so I get to spend time with him a lot. It’s fun going out there and hitting the ball and hoping I’ll hit it where I want.
DL: You described it “getting a little intense” for game night at your grandparents’ house. What was that all about?
DK: Well, it’s a game called Scattergories where you’re given a letter like ‘C’ and you get a category like say ‘restaurant’ so you have to think of a restaurant that begins with the letter ‘C’ and like an animal, a body of clothing or a body part and some of them are a little controversial like ‘rope’ is an article of clothing. The arguments can get a little heated at times but it’s fun in the end and what makes it really fun is that everyone’s so competitive about it.
DL: You made your commitment toward USC but how did that come to be and what other schools did you consider in the process?
DK: I was considering mostly UC Santa Barbara and USC. Those were the big two I was thinking of. I was going to wait to get some official visits in but I didn’t see that happening in the near future and there’s no official visits now, so I was just sitting in my room and I was like I know where I want to go to college. I took my parents to dinner, or rather they took me to dinner and I told them I think I want to go to school at USC and later that night I called the coach and told him I’d love to go to USC and play volleyball for you. That’s kind of how it came to be.
DL: Did your grandpa Bob, who was a standout athlete at USC, give you the nod?
DK: Sure, he was kind of hoping I was going to go there. He didn’t really want to voice his opinion but yeah, I could tell he was super excited.
DL: I understand you are big into bodysurfing early in the morning at Loyola?
DK: I’m the owner of the bodysurf club at Loyola. It’s not really a club to be honest with you. It’s getting t-shirts that say ‘BodysurfClub’ on them and we take a photo at the end of the year, it’s pretty fun. We get to the beach a little bit when the waves are good. I like to recruit the younger kids and make them think that it’s a really serious club and show up in speedos and goggles.
DL: Like your dad you are a Corpus Christi kid. What sports did you like playing there?
DK: Flag football for sure. That was really fun. I played that, I played basketball and I played volleyball. I liked volleyball and flag football the most. Basketball wasn’t really my thing, I didn’t really know how to dribble.
DL: We are hoping for the best that you can get this season going. Everyone gets fired up for that Loyola vs. Mira Costa match—it is such a great tradition. How much are looking forward to renewing that rivalry?
DK: I’m super excited for the Costa game but more importantly I really want to play volleyball. I want to get in the gym and play with my friends at Loyola, get out there and hopefully win a national championship or CIF championship for our team last year that in my opinion we could’ve won, but I just really want to get out there and play some volleyball. I’m really hoping we’ll be able to play this season. Go Cubs!
DL: We are hoping for the best that you can get this season going. Everyone gets fired up for that Loyola vs. Mira Costa match—it is such a great tradition. How much are looking forward to renewing that rivalry?
DK: I’m super excited for the Costa game but more importantly I really want to play volleyball. I want to get in the gym and play with my friends at Loyola, get out there and hopefully win a national championship or CIF championship for our team last year that in my opinion we would’ve won, but I just really want to get out there.
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