DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK:

As far as fashion statements go, Olympic medals don’t really make good accessories, which is probably why no one’s seen one on the catwalks of New York, London and Milan during this year’s spring shows.

No one just walks around with a gold medal hanging from his neck.

So, if Newport Harbor High junior JB Green wanted to flaunt the spoils of his athletic prowess the way his brother Brett does — with an accessory that draws less scrutiny — he would need a ring.

Incidentally, Green, who earned a gold medal last year at the Junior Olympics playing outside hitter for his Balboa Bay club volleyball team, has a ring.

But he wants another one.

Green, a cornerback, has vivid memories of the Sailors’ football team winning a division title in 2005, when he was just a freshman. Green’s brother Brett, was a starting safety on the team.

Green had played on the freshman team during the regular season, and he was bumped up to varsity during the post-season, so both he and Brett have commemorative rings of the Sailors’ win over Marina.

However, Green wants to revisit the triumph of winning a division title, and he wants to do it as a permanent fixture on the varsity roster.

The ring means a lot to him, Green said, but not as much as it does to Brett, who wears his more often, anyway.

“I really didn’t get to experience the same thing my brother did because he worked for four years, and then he got to win his senior year. I don’t know the exact feeling that he felt,” said Green, who recorded the best game of his career last week in a 41-7 victory over Back Bay rival Corona del Mar. Green had three interceptions, and returned two of them for touchdowns. He also scored on a 61-yard touchdown reception.

“I just got moved up, so I kind of just got to watch him, and see how hard he worked and got to win CIF,” said Green, who grew up tossing the football with Brett. “With winning the gold, that was my experience, where I got to work hard and achieve something that I wanted to.”

While he’s happy with his accomplishments as an outside hitter, it doesn’t pack the same punch, Green said.

“Football, has a lot more meaning because it’s four years of dedication,” Green said. “It means more because it’s four years of working hard for something that you want. There’s something about football — the camaraderie — there’s something different, there’s something more. But there’s still a lot in volleyball too.”

In addition to football, Green does charity work with the Beach City Boys’ service league.

The service league holds food drives and provides mentorship, and Green led a service league group which raised $10,000 for the American Cancer Society during the Relay for Life at Newport Harbor.

One weekend last year, Green drug himself out of bed to leave Newport Beach with the group at 5:30 a.m. to head to Tijuana, not to party, but to help erect houses.

Green volunteered with a construction crew and helped nail the framing for a house into place as the family in need stood by and watched.

“You get to see the smiles on their face after they get a house,” Green said, who was a three-sport athlete as a freshman, when he also played basketball.

He has since cut back to just football and volleyball.

As he looks ahead to the rest of this season, and his senior season next year, the question for Green is whether Newport Harbor will be able to recapture its former glory after divisional restructuring put Newport Harbor on par with more difficult opponents.

It’s the only way he will truly understand what his brother felt.

“It think it’s going to be more challenging,” Green said. “The team’s are a lot better, but I still think we can do it. We just have to keep on working hard.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at [email protected].