WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- For many people Brady House’s age, this is the time of year to think about spring break. For House, who turned 18 years old one month before being selected by the Nationals with the 11th overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, he can’t picture late February being about something other than baseball.

“I can’t really think of anything else,” House said on Wednesday. “This has always been a dream to get drafted out of high school and work my tail off to get to where I am. I don’t really see me doing anything else, so I’m really thankful to be here.”

House, ranked as the Nats’ No. 2 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, is getting his first taste of professional preseason baseball at Minor League camp at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. He participated in Washington’s instructional league last fall and applied pointers from there to his Minor League camp prep work.

After belting four home runs and batting .322 in 16 Florida Complex League games last season, House is focused on driving power into the ground versus coming up in his swing. With that comes an emphasis on timing, noting, “It doesn’t matter how good or bad your swing is if your timing’s not on.”

Defensively, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound infielder believes he can play shortstop in the big leagues. House has been improving his footwork to help maximize his fielding abilities, which includes working on his first step. He logged 120 2/3 innings at shortstop last season with 27 putouts and 38 assists against four errors, good enough for a .942 fielding percentage.

“I don’t want to be sitting back on the ball, waiting for a bad hop to come,” House explained. “I want to charge the ball, get at it as quick as I can, get it out of my glove, out of my hand as fast as I can, and, obviously, since I’m a bigger guy, just keep staying low.”

In part of his ramp up to Minor League camp, House trained at his alma mater, Winder-Barrow High School in Winder, Ga., where there were two fields and a squad full of excited former teammates and coaches just 10 minutes from home. Amid answering questions about his new life in the pros, there were many aspects of the workouts that were very familiar to him.

“My high school team that I played with, most of all the kids were still on the team,” House said. “I would just go over there and hang out with them. It felt like I was still on the team, so it was a lot of fun during the offseason.”

Now in West Palm Beach, House is excited to dive into the grind that it will take to play his first full season at the professional level. What is a vacation destination for some of his peers, House is happy to call it his place of work. And when he does get a day off, he knows just how he wants to spend it.

“It’s good being in Florida for Spring Training,” House remarked. “Because I made sure to bring my fishing poles.”