UC SANTA CRUZ -
Santa Cruz,
CA
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Just 27 miles south of San Jose and 65 miles south of San Francisco, resting on a 2,000-acre redwood forest overlooking the Pacific Ocean, U.C. Santa Cruz is a magnificent setting for this camp.
Returning for his 6th summer with the Nike Basketball Camps is Gordon Johnson. In 2002, after 22 years of successful high school coaching at one of the nation's premiere programs (St. Joseph Notre Dame H.S., Alameda CA), Coach Johnson jumped into college coaching at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he started out as an Assistant Men’s Basketball coach before being promoted to 
the Interim Head Coach with four games remaining in the 2002/2003 season. Coach Johnson started his coaching career in 1972 as a volunteer Head Coach at Dewey Continuation School in Oakland, while he played football at Merrit Junior College. After two years at Merrit, Coach Johnson attended San Francisco State to further his football career. It was at this point that Coach Johnson found his passion was coaching basketball, and he stopped playing football to get back into basketball.
In 1980 while still in the military, Coach Johnson got his chance to break into high school coaching. Coach Johnson started out as Assistant Coach on the Freshman team at Mt. Diablo High School in Concord, CA and later took over the team when the Head Coach left after the first game of the season. After a 12-12 first year, Coach Johnson moved up to Junior Varsity, taking over a team that finished 0-24 the previous year. They finished the year with a 16-8 record. In his 
inaugural season as a head coach (1989) he led the pilots to a 29-5 finish - (second in the State Div. 1) and was named Bay Area Coach of the Year. In each year under Coach Johnson the Pilots have played in North Coast Section playoffs. In his last year (2001) at St. Joseph the team finished with a successful 22-7 record and another trip to the North Coach Section playoffs. Prior to taking over as Head Coach, Coach Johnson, was the Junior Varsity Head Coach for 16 seasons and averaged eighteen wins a year.
Quotes from past UC Santa Cruz Parents:
“This survey is for both my boys who attended, ages 12 and 14. They had a great time and were first worried the camp would be too easy, but they said it was really hard which is great praise coming from them. Both play for school teams, AAU, and their County teams all year long. Thanks so much for having this camp, and in our hometown as well!”
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Please check back for upcoming schedule of sessions