During his high school basketball career, Michael Johnson once scored 55 points to lead the Ballard Beavers to a win. Now Johnson would like to help develop young talent in the Ballard community and has three basketball camps scheduled this summer for kids grades three to nine.

The Hoopaholics Ballard Basketball Camps are July 24-27 and August 14-17 at Ballard High for boys. A girl's camp is July 31 to August 3 at the Ballard Community Center.

"These camps are designed to help young players develop proper shooting techniques, ball handling skills, foot work on offense and defense and self confidence," said Johnson.

The camps have been a success the last few years, with over 60 kids each session.

"It's nice to see kids in the area wanting to be better at basketball," said Johnson, who was the State Player of the Year as a Beaver in 1996 and 1997.

"It's a strong foundation. We will see a lot of talented kids (coming to Ballard High) in the next five years," said Johnson.

Johnson graduated from Ballard High School in 1997 and led the Beavers to the state playoffs twice. He had his first slam dunk while playing at Whitman Middle School and returned to that school two years ago to coach the boy's team.

Johnson set a state high school career scoring record for 2A players. After high school, Johnson played four years with the University of Washington (UW) Huskies and was a professional basketball player in Brazil. He has also played on a Seattle Supersonics summer league team with Rashard Lewis.

As a Ballard graduate, Johnson has an interest in the basketball programs and follows the boy's team under the direction of Coach Billy Rodgers and the girls under Coach Karen Blair.

Both Rodgers and Blair completed their first year as head coaches last season. The girls qualified for the playoffs and the boys showed steady improvement.

Johnson says Rodgers is the kind of guy to turn the basketball program around after a number of losing seasons in KingCo.

He is also impressed with the girls. "They were competitive. Blair is doing a good job," he said.

Ballard coaches and players will help out at the camps. Local players from the UW and Seattle Pacific University will also assist.

For registration and camp fees call 235-5195 or visit www.ballardhoopaholics.net.