Issaquah Eagles lacrosse player Nate Holbrook will never forget the trip he made to Maryland earlier this summer.

Holbrook, who completed his sophomore season as a starting defender this past spring for Issaquah was selected to attend the Nike Blue Chip Lacrosse Camp in Baltimore. The 16-year-old junior-to-be said the talent level at the invite-only camp was off the charts.

“It was super competitive. Most of the guys there, lacrosse is everything to them and that’s awesome,” Holbrook said. “At a lot of showcases you don’t really get to have a ton of fun, but the coaches there were really nice and they made it fun. I enjoyed it a lot.”

Holbrook, who will be in his seventh season of lacrosse as a junior, said his favorite position on the field is defender.

“I remember my coach saying to me my freshman year, ‘Use your defensive stick as a search and scalpel and not as a baseball bat.’ That is how I like to describe my playing style,” Holbrook said. “I’m pretty conservative and I will just take my time. Timing is everything to me. Once I have the timing down, I’m super aggressive at that point.”

Holbrook said he has a long-term goal of playing lacrosse at the collegiate level. He said he wants to play for a program where he will have the opportunity to earn a significant amount of playing time right off the bat.

“I don’t just want to be on the team. I want to be actually playing college lacrosse, I don’t want to to just be sitting on the sidelines,” he said. “I have never done that. That is not the kind of player I am.”