Everything Coming Up Orange in Softball : Olympic Festival: Nineteen players with county ties are on teams at the competition.

The U.S. Olympic Festival is all about red, white and blue. But when it comes to the softball competition, it’s really all about orange.

Orange County, that is.

When it comes to softball talent for the festival, Orange County is a primary source.

There will be 60 players competing in softball at the festival, which begins Friday in San Antonio. Half are from Southern California. Almost one-third have county ties.

The festival is the first step toward assembling the first Olympic softball team. The Amateur Softball Assn., whose task it is to deliver a team to Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Games, determined who would make up the East, West, North and South teams.

The association chose 30 Junior Olympic players who are 18 and under, and 30 who are second- or third-team All-Americans from the major nationals, the highest classification of ASA women’s fast-pitch competition.

First-team All-Americans won’t participate because they are competing in a world championship tournament in Holland.

Of the 30 Southern California players competing, 19 have county connections:

* Ten players grew up in the county and played high school ball here.

* Two play for Cal State Fullerton.

* Two reside in the county but play ASA club ball elsewhere.

* Five live elsewhere but play club ball here.

“There are easily another 50 kids in Southern California who are reasonably close, on a par with those who are (going to the Olympic Festival),” said Gary Haning, who coaches the Santa Ana-based Batbusters, the defending ASA 18-and-under national champion. “The players on my team who were not chosen could just as easily be there. There are players on Gordon’s Panthers (La Palma) and the Pirettes (Riverside) that are of the same caliber.”

Haning said players from the California Raiders (Westminster) and Hot Stuff (Placentia) can be included in that group, too.

Southern California teams have won every ASA national championship in all age groups since 1979, with the exception of last year’s 12-and-under winner, which was from Phoenix.

“That kind of sums it up,” Haning said. “The softball in Orange County especially and Southern California generally is the best in the country, by far.

“Even the team (Raybestos Brakettes from Stratford, Conn.) that has won the most women’s major championships (23) is composed of mostly Southern California players, and they have been over the years. They just have the wherewithal to get Southern California players.”

Haning is entrenched in Orange County. In addition to his work with the Batbusters, he coaches at Mission Viejo High and is a batting instructor at Strictly Softball, a hitting and pitching school in Santa Ana. He is one of eight coaches participating in the festival and will assist the West’s head coach, Margie Wright, the Fresno State coach who was an assistant at the 1991 Pan American Games.

In fact, two other coaches are from Southern California--UCLA’s Sue Endquist, whose teams have won two of the last four NCAA titles and finished second twice, and Larry Mays of La Palma, who coaches Gordon’s Panthers.

Skip Redman is a regional director for the National Scouting Report, which seeks out college talent. When it comes to handing out scholarships, he says there is a built-in bias toward Orange County and Southern California athletes in certain sports, including softball.

“California has it made for softball players,” he said. “On the East Coast, they play slow-pitch softball in high school; (colleges) would be taking a chance (on those players). . . . If you’re from here, they assume you’re going to be real good.”

Haning agrees.

“At my Christmas tournament, it has 30 to 40 college coaches in the dead of winter,” he said. “Every Southern California tournament will attract 10 to 15 or more college coaches from out of state. When they look for a player, they come here first.”

There are several reasons Orange County is No. 1 in the nation:

--The weather. Athletes can train and play year-round, increasing the caliber of play. Practice makes perfect.

--The competition. “The interest here is such that scholarships are a big thing and a lot of the female athletes gravitate toward softball, and the college teams recruit far greater here,” Haning said.

--The population. Having a large talent pool increases the level of competition.

--The coaching. “The people who coach softball here at the ASA Junior Olympic level, the 18-and-under, the 16-and-under, the 14- and 12-and-unders. . . . If you’re going to be able to compete and win in Orange County, you really have to be on top of things because there are a lot of good coaches,” Haning said.

“Just as competition makes players better, the competition makes the coaches better; you have to look for every edge because you know your opponents are doing that.”