For Quarter of Century, County Girls Make Their Marks : Athletes: From badminton to volleyball, the best of the best are remembered.

In the past 25 years, Orange County has produced some of the most accomplished high school athletes in the United States.

The list of names matches up favorably with those from any other area of the country, particularly on the girls’ side, where several athletes from the county have risen to stardom since the pioneering days of the Girls’ Athletic Assn.

With that in mind, we have selected several girl athletes whom we feel shined above the rest in their respective sports over the last quarter of a century.

Here are our choices:

BADMINTON / Tracy Hudson, Garden Grove

How is this for dominance? In her four-year career with the Argonauts, Hudson had a 154-5 record and won Southern Section singles titles in 1985, ’86 and ’87 by defeating teammate Thuy Nguyen in the finals each time.

In 1987, Hudson also won the junior national championship triple crown with victories in the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events.

“She had a lot of natural ability,” said Vicki Toutz, the Garden Grove badminton coach who was recently named to coach the U.S. Olympic team in Barcelona. “She had a tennis background, which helped her in basic strategy against her opponents. She had power and quickness, but her most valuable asset was her will to win. She was the best high school badminton player I have ever seen.”

After high school, Hudson attended Arizona State briefly. She died in October, 1987, in a single-car accident the day after playing in a tournament at the university.

BASKETBALL / Ann Meyers, Sonora

The world of high school girls’ basketball has evolved considerably since Meyers played for the Raiders back in the punch-and-cookies days of GAA. But there’s no doubt she would be a major force if she played today.

At Sonora, Meyers competed in seven sports, but basketball carried her to national prominence.

In 1974, she became the first prep player to make a U.S. international team and the next year became the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship to UCLA. She won a silver medal as a guard with the U.S. team at the 1976 Olympics and made headlines in 1979 when she signed a $50,000 contract with the NBA Indiana Pacers. She was released before the season and later signed a $130,000 contract with the New Jersey Gems of the Women’s Basketball League. The league folded, however, so Meyers never got much of that money.

“She’s the premier player to come out of this area,” Huntington Beach girls’ Athletic Director Joanne Kellogg said.

Meyers, who is married to former Dodger pitcher and current broadcaster Don Drysdale, was inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.

Of course, there’s room for disagreement in the selection of Meyers. Mark Trakh, who has coached several standouts at Brea-Olinda, picks one of his former players for the honors.

“There’s no question in my mind that Jody Anton is the best ever,” Trakh said. “She elevated her team beyond Orange County. Anton helped mainstream girls’ basketball here.”

Anton, a versatile athlete who led the Ladycats this season to their third State basketball title in the past four years, certainly deserves consideration. The USC-bound guard might be in a class by herself in the long run, but Meyers’ historical contributions to the game can’t be ignored.

FIELD HOCKEY / Browyn Markell, Garden Grove

In 1982 and ‘83, Markell led the Argonauts to section championships and was named the section player of the year both times. She then received a full scholarship to Iowa, where she played briefly.

Kit Snider, Santiago’s field hockey coach, remembers Markell well.

“She was an outstanding player,” Snider said. “She was dedicated to the sport and she worked hard. She spent hours on her own working on her stick skills.”

Snider, however, said she considers former Rancho Alamitos standout Debbie Robertson the best player to come out of the county. Robertson was on the national junior team at one time and, like Markell, attended Iowa.

“Her strong point was stamina,” Snider said of Robertson. “She was the gutsiest little player I’ve seen. She never quit.”

Until knee injuries forced her to, that is. Snider said Robertson sat out her senior season at Iowa because her knees could no longer take the punishment.

“She had many surgeries on her knees,” Snider said. “But her teammates had so much respect for her that they named her team captain anyway.”

Today, a few school still have field hockey teams, but the sport is not officially sanctioned by the Southern Section.

GOLF / Kim Saiki, Ocean View

Although the girls’ bracket of the Southern Section Southern California Golf Assn. has been contested only since 1982, no county female golfer has won it except Saiki.

Saiki was the runner-up to Kathy Kostas of Quartz Hill in 1982, losing by one stroke, and won the next two years.

In 1981, as a freshman, she competed in the Kemper Women’s Open at Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa.

SOCCER / Julie Foudy, Mission Viejo

For four seasons, Foudy ruled girls’ soccer in the county.

Foudy, a midfielder who was voted The Times Orange County player of the year in 1987, ’88 and ‘89, led the Diablos to two outright Southern Section 4-A titles and a share of one with Edison in her freshman season. She helped Mission Viejo win 84 consecutive matches in one stretch.

“She had some of the best skills I’ve seen,” El Toro girls’ Coach Kerry Krause said. “She could control the game. She took command. She had all the good qualities of a big-time athlete.”

As a 16-year-old in 1988, Foudy joined the U.S. national team and has played in 26 international matches since. She was on the U.S. squad that won the women’s World Cup in China last year.

Foudy is now a junior at Stanford where, as a freshman, she was named the freshman player of the year by Soccer America magazine.

SOFTBALL / Michele Granger, Valencia

In a game controlled by pitching, this formidable left-hander rewrote the record books and established herself as one of the all-time greats--while still in high school.

Granger, now at California, set a national career mark for strikeouts with 1,635 and a single-season record for strikeouts with 509 in 1987. She won 71 games at Valencia, mostly with mediocre teams, and pitched an amazing 36 career no-hitters. Her 0.10 career earned-run average ranks second (tied with Heather Compton of Santa Maria Righetti) behind the 0.07 record held by Lakewood St. Joseph’s Lisa Fernandez (now at UCLA).

Among Granger’s feats were a 40-strikeout performance in a 25-inning, 1-0, loss to La Mirada in the 1988 Southern Section 3-A semifinals that marked the end of her high school career.

“I wouldn’t put anyone ahead of her in pitching,” Fountain Valley Coach Cary Baker said. “When I saw her the first time, she was warming up from deep left field to home. And she wasn’t just lobbing the sucker in. She was toying with high school players.”

Even though Granger was practically unhittable, Baker and Garden Grove Coach Paula Cervantes say that Tiffany Boyd, the former Woodbridge pitcher-outfielder who is now at Cal State Fullerton, was the better all-around player.

“Tiffany Boyd was a total player,” Cervantes said. “If I wanted any player on my team, I probably would have chosen Boyd first because of her all-around ability.”

Said Baker: “She (Boyd) is the best player we’ve ever faced. . . . She was very much an impact player.”

SWIMMING AND DIVING / Janet Evans, El Dorado

When talking about the ultimate girls’ swimmer in county history, the name of Evans is far ahead of all contenders, much as she was in the water.

During her four years with the Golden Hawks, Evans won seven of eight individual section titles and was on several winning relay teams. Her 1989 time of 1:59.96 in the 200-yard individual medley and her 4:37.30 in the 500-yard freestyle in 1988 are still section records.

By the end of her junior season, she had set world records in the 400-meter freestyle, the 800 freestyle and the 1,500 freestyle.

“She was incredible,” said Los Alamitos girls’ swimming Coach Debbie Fleming, whose teams faced El Dorado teams led by Evans in Empire League meets. “You never really competed against Janet. You just enjoyed her superior talent. We used to beat her team all the time. We just couldn’t beat her.”

Nobody could at the 1988 Olympics, either.

At the games in Seoul, Evans won the 400-meter individual medley, the 400-meter freestyle in a world-record time of 4:03.85 and the 800-meter freestyle.

Evans competed at Stanford two years but left school in April, 1991, after the NCAA adopted a rule that would allow swimmers to train only 20 hours per week during the college season and only eight hours per week during the off-season. Evans said she trains up to 35 hours per week in preparation for this summer’s Olympics.

TENNIS / Keri Phebus, Corona del Mar

The first county player to win a section singles title, Phebus made the breakthrough in 1988, her freshman year, and repeated the victory the next season. Only one other county player, Dana Hills’ Anne Mall in 1991, has won the title.

Phebus led the Sea Kings to the Southern Section 4-A championship her first season, when she was named The Times Orange County player of the year. Corona del Mar finished second to Palos Verdes in 1990, and Phebus concluded her high school career with a 117-4 record.

TRACK AND FIELD (Running events) / Polly Plumer, University

In county track and field history, Plumer has no equal in the distance events.

A three-time section, Masters and State champion at 1,600 meters (1980, ’81 and ‘82), Plumer still holds the CIF record of 4:39.92 in the 1,600 meters, set at the 1982 championships.

She also ran a 4:35.25 mile at the 1982 Pepsi Invitational at UCLA--a mark generally regarded by track aficionados as the national high school record, but not recognized by the National Federation of State High School Athletic Assns. because it was run in a race that included non-high school athletes.

Plumer, who was a four-time All-American in track and cross-country at UCLA, is also our choice as the county’s best girls’ cross-country runner. She won Southern Section 4-A cross-country titles in 1980 and ‘81, and her time of 17:27 in 1981 is still a record for Orange County girls at the Mt. San Antonio College cross-country course.

Plumer recently qualified for the U.S. Olympic track and field trials (June 19-28 at New Orleans) in the 3,000 meters, an event headed by her older sister, PattiSue Plumer.

TRACK AND FIELD (Field events) / Natalie Kaaiawahia, Fullerton

Few high school athletes anywhere have dominated their sports like the Hawaiian-born Kaaiawahia.

From 1980 to 1983, Kaaiawahia won four consecutive State shotput titles and two State discus championships.

In those four seasons, Kaaiawahia was virtually untouchable. She didn’t lose a shotput competition she entered after her freshman year at Fullerton, and broke the national record for high school girls four times. Her mark of 53 feet 7 3/4 inches set at the Southern Section 3-A championships in 1983 still stands.

And her discus throws were equally impressive. In fact, her personal best of 174-9 in 1983 remains among the top all-time national efforts for high school girls.

“I’ve never seen a female thrower in my years of coaching with more talent,” said Art Venegas, now in his 12th season as the UCLA men’s and women’s throwing coach. “I don’t think America will ever know how good a thrower she really was.”

After high school, Kaaiawahia competed for Arizona State one year and her 179-8 discus throw is the third-best for a woman at the university. She is no longer involved in the sport.

VOLLEYBALL / Elaina Oden, Irvine

The second oldest of three volleyball-playing sisters, Oden is perhaps not only the premier high school player in county history, but one of the all-time top performers in the world.

A 6-foot-1 middle blocker with extensive international experience on the U.S. national team, Oden emerged from the shadow of older sister Kim--who’s also on the U.S. team--to build a reputation for herself.

She helped the Vaqueros to Southern Section 4-A championships as a freshman in 1981 and again as a senior in 1984, when she was named The Times Orange County player of the year.

“When you talk about pure volleyball players, you have to go with Elaina,” said Charlie Brande, the former Corona del Mar girls’ coach. Brande coaches the Orange County Volleyball Club and had Oden on that team at one point. “She’s the best blocker in the world. Her greatest attribute is her quickness, and she’s a tremendous competitor.”

Oden carried University of the Pacific to NCAA championships in 1985 and ’86. She was selected to the 1980s NCAA All-Decade team along with sister Kim, who played at Stanford. Their younger sister, Bev, was the NCAA Player of the Year in 1990 while at Stanford.

The Odens, however, were preceded in the county by at least one outstanding player whom two coaches believe was pretty close to their class.

Dale Keough, sister of Angel pitcher Matt Keough, was a middle blocker at Corona del Mar in the mid-70s and was chosen the USOC Player of the Year in 1980, the year the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics. She thoroughly impressed Dale Flickinger, who coached the Sea Kings a few years after Keough played there but coached her on a club volleyball team.

“For athletic ability, I’ve never seen anybody with the combination of competitiveness, the strength, the quickness and the coordination,” said Flickinger, an engineer at Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo. “She made plays that were hard to believe.”