The weekend of June 24 and 25, the San Diego Seals hosted their fifth annual Junior Seals Summer Skills Camp. Coached by some of the NLL’s biggest West Coast stars, including Seals captain Wes Berg, ‘24-25 offensive standout Tre Leclaire and League vet Cam Holding, the Summer Skills Camp welcomes local youth players of all skill and exposure levels to a weekend of in-game instruction and extreme fun.
Currently headed by Holding with support from his teammates and the Seals Organization, this year’s iteration attracted over 120 eager players to the 4s Ranch Sports Park, tightly packed with drills and activities, and even included celebrity appearances by the San Diego Sirens, the in-house dance team, and the Seals’ mascot, Salty. “[Camp] was awesome, they had an absolute blast,” said Holding. “The kids love getting autographs, they love competing for prizes.”
Holding, the current Director of the Junior Seals program, has been coaching field and box lacrosse for the better part of the last decade, from Pop Warner to the highest rungs of the collegiate box lacrosse circuit. With years of experience on the sidelines as a player and coach, his greatest strength as an educator is his ability to cater his coaching to even the greenest of players.
“It’s more so about having fun learning the game,” Holding explained.
“It’s not super detail-skill oriented, it’s designed for general beginner to mid-level players.”
Though the region has become synonymous with lacrosse talent over the last several years due to the introduction of two professional teams, West Coast lacrosse participation is still trailing behind the “Big Four” youth sports; football, baseball, soccer and basketball. However, the participation gaps are slowly closing, due in part to grassroots efforts made by the Seals in the form of camps and community outreach, but also to the growing number of California natives and local San Diego athletes blazing trails to success in their sport.
Atop that list of lacrosse professionals representing their region is Marquez White, the short-stick defensive midfielder from Princeton University. White was drafted 35th overall by the Buffalo Bandits in the 2024 NLL Draft, before being acquired by the Seals mid-season during moments before the trade deadline. White was also a member of the San Diego Royals, the Seals-affiliated collegiate box team that won three National Collegiate Box Series (NCBS) Championships, and has become a familiar face on the Summer Skills Camp coaching staff.
“I’ve done this camp for three years now, but this was my first time as a Seal,” White explained, humbly extending praise and credit to his coaches-turned-teammates on the success of the camp over the years. “[Holding] does a really good job running it and making it really fun for the kids, and exposing them to being around professional lacrosse players.”
But while White may still see himself as the kid brother of the team, Holding recognizes White’s potential not only as a model player for their campers, but as a model adult. White, as well as the other collegiate players under the coaches’ tent’s presence, allows campers the opportunity to not only learn from the best, but see the best-of-the-best having fun playing the game they love in an intimate setting.
“It’s a shared interest and a shared love for the game, and I think ultimately that’s what helps keep the game growing,” said Holding. “When you have somebody like [White], who’s an incredible role model, and guys like Berg and myself and Leclaire, these kids look up to them, and it keeps them motivated to keep getting better and keep growing, and that’s just contagious across the board.”
Additionally, as those campers get older, Holding explained, they begin to repeat the cycle and invest in the next generation of athletes as they once were, working to better the youth scene they were once a part of and illustrating a tangible pathway to success. Holding holds White in such high regard for just that reason, explaining that despite the difference in resources and local role models as compared to when he was in the campers’ place, he has always been a local-first kind of man.
“These camps weren’t around when [White] was their age, but he grew up in the same system that all these kids are playing in,” Holding said. “Now they’re seeing him on the big stage with the Seals and learning from him and looking up to him as a role model in the community. I’ve coached Marquez for the last five years and it’s been really fun to watch him grow as a player, as a person, and give back to the community.”
White also brings a unique perspective to camp, being part of one of the last few graduating classes to experience pre-Seals San Diego lacrosse. Following their inaugural season in 2018, White has had the opportunity to watch his community’s lacrosse scene grow exponentially as the region has been introduced to both the NLL’s Seals and the Premier Lacrosse League’s California Redwoods.
“[The Seals] have done a really good job just getting their name out to a lot of the youth programs,” said White, once again nodding to Holding for his grassroots efforts. “[Holding and the Seals] are a very big part of why lacrosse has kind of exploded in San Diego, why so many of these kids are picking up a stick and even more so going into the box, which is really awesome to see.”
As a member of the 2024 NLL Rookie class, White no longer has the luxury of watching his peers leading the charge in his community. The Poway-native is now on the front lines of the sports growth in the market he was cultivated in, inheriting the responsibility from his captains and coaches to spread the good word. “I don’t know if I’ve really grasped how lucky I am that I get to be a part of it,” White said. “I’ve got a Seals shirt on right now [during this interview], and I’ve been wearing a Seals shirt since I was in high school, but now it’s actually my team, these are actually my teammates.”
While it’s easy for fans and campers alike to see Holding and White standing at the peak, it’s easier to forget that the journey to the top is not without its share of briar patches and quicksand. “Whenever I run a camp, I always look at those kids and think to myself ‘I was in their position like 15 years ago,’ and I like to tell them that,” said White. “It’s really cool to share with them that I started in the same exact shoes they were and this is the end goal, this is what it looks like, and I hope to make them feel like it’s possible.” As a product of both the San Diego youth lacrosse scene and the Royals pipeline, White hopes that his presence at camps can continue to help inspire the next generation of San Diego-bred collegiate and professional athletes, and foster the same level of respect for the game in his campers that he carries with him.
Though skills, stats and wins and losses are still the name of the game, Holding and White both agree that there is more to learning the game of lacrosse than the chance for glory, and hope their Junior Seals leave camp having learned that lesson. Holding also especially feels the need to make the Summer Skills Camp to be an opportunity to enjoy lacrosse as a game first instead of a sport as the level of competition grows.
“There’s so much pressure with different clubs and what kids want and what their goals are, this whole Division 1 thing– man, just go out, have fun,” he said, reminiscing on his childhood connection to lacrosse and the creative ways he and his friends would find ways to play out of season. “I think that’s super important for kids to have fun, not get burned out and continue to want to develop.”
