DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

On the floor, behind the rest of his Newport Harbor High teammates, Cody Caldwell watches the coach and TV.

Dan Glenn instructs. The TV is the visual lesson for Thursday.

Glenn has been the head coach of the Newport Harbor boys’ volleyball program since 1987. Breaking down teams, footage, players, he excels at these coaching rituals.

Glenn has a good read on Caldwell, almost as well as his parents. He befriended the Caldwells before coaching Cody.

Whatever Glenn says about the 6-foot-5, 175-pounder, you can take his words for it.

“Cody is not all connected yet,” Glenn said. “It’s going to take him awhile to grow into his body.”

Caldwell has time to mature, build strength and add pounds. He’s only a sophomore.

Gaining weight will naturally happen as he ages. Everything else has sped up thanks to Caldwell getting his chance to play his natural position at Newport Harbor.

The move from the middle to the outside has the Sailors (11-5) contending again.

Caldwell led Newport Harbor in the top division at the Orange County Championships, earning the tournament’s MVP award after finishing with a match-high 14 kills in the Sailors’ 25-23, 28-26 victory against Orange Lutheran in the final Monday.

These are the kind of accolades Caldwell saw his older brother, Kyle, claim during his four years with the Sailors.

In Kyle’s senior year last season, he took home a lot of honors, from the Orange County Male Athlete of the Year by the Orange County Athletic Directors Assn., to the Sunset League MVP, in volleyball and boys’ basketball, and first-team All-CIF Southern Section recognition.

Little brother witnessed all of this, mostly from the bench, on a team ranked No. 1 in the country by Rivals.com before losing in the CIF Southern Section Division I championship. Anyone following in their older sibling’s footsteps will be pressed to match similar accomplishments.

Cody wants to no part of it.

“I don’t know what people expect out of me,” Cody said. “I haven’t really talked to anybody about it. I don’t feel any pressure to follow in his footsteps, or anything like that. I don’t really care.

“I just like playing volleyball.”

Cody grew up in a family which loves volleyball.

He said his late grandfather, George Yardley, a Hall of Fame basketball player, his mother, Anne, three uncles, and Kyle played volleyball on the hardwood, sand, dirt or grass.

Many people put up a basketball court in the backyard. Cody went to houses with nets as part of the landscape.

Kyle earned a scholarship to play on the UCLA men’s volleyball team. College isn’t really on Cody’s radar at the moment. School and the season keep him busy, the Sailors are ranked No. 5 in the latest Division I coaches’ poll.

UCLA and USC have sent Cody letters and he said it would be “cool” to play with Kyle again.

The two are different. Glenn has coached both and he said from the position each plays, to their personalities, to what side of the brain they use, you name it, they’re opposites.

“He’s a lefty. I’m a righty,” said Cody, who is four inches shorter and 70 pounds lighter than Kyle, and isn’t as aggressive as Kyle.

One thing the brothers have in common is they were born in the same month, March. Kyle turned 19 on the 15th. Cody’s 16th birthday is Saturday.

Cody said Kyle won’t come home this weekend. The opposite will be with UCLA, which plays at BYU today and Saturday.

The two brothers hooked up briefly Wednesday. Not on a good night for the Sailors.

Kyle watched them get swept at No. 1-ranked Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach, the same team which came from two games down to beat Newport Harbor in the section championship last May.

“Shook hands and got on the bus,” Cody said of his exchange with Kyle. “We had to go straight on the bus after the [match].

“We wanted to win. [Playing Mira Costa again] didn’t really remind me of last year. We just wanted to go out there and win. We didn’t do that. We just didn’t play well.”

There’s a reason why Caldwell paid close attention to Glenn and the TV Thursday. Glenn said he and the Sailors can get a lot better.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.