Rusty, left, and Myla, right, pose for a photo with their daughter Tahnai Annis at the NCAA Adidas All-American Awards Ceremony following Tahnai’s senior year at Florida.
Submitted photo
Teo Annis is excited to begin his seventh-grade year at Northside Middle School and his soccer season for the Columbus Express.
Those things will have to wait a few days, however. Teo will be in New Zealand with his mother Myla and his other brother and sister for at least the next two weeks watching his oldest sister Tahnai Annis play for the Philippines in the Women’s World Cup.
“He will miss the first three days of school, but we have a pretty good excuse,” Myla said. “And we got an excuse from his club team to miss his first week of training in August because we’ll be over there.”
The Women’s World Cup starts Thursday in New Zealand and Australia. While the two-time defending champion United States is the heavy favorite, the Philippines are a feel-good story making their first World Cup appearance.
Last week, the Philippines and US played a friendly in New Zealand. The Americans won 3-0, although many of the top players from both teams, including Tahnai, did not play.
“Just to have that experience, because USA has been on that stage, it was the Philippines first time,” Myla said. “Just to get them used to that kind of caliber, this is surreal for them.”
Tahnai Annis takes a shot for the Philippines during last year’s Asia Football Federation Championship.
Submitted photo
The Philippines qualified for the World Cup by finishing in the top five in the Asian Cup in February 2022. The “Malditas” had fallen one win short of making the 2019 World Cup when Tahnai was making her debut with the national team in 2018.
Tahnai’s father Rusty Annis grew up in South Bend and played soccer at Grace College. He finished college at Ohio State, where he met Myla.
Tahnai was born in 1989, and the family lived in Columbus from 1993-96 when Rusty worked as a physical therapist at Southern Indiana Orthopedics. When Columbus Regional Hospital bought SIO, the family moved to Zanesville, Ohio.
Rusty coached Tahnai in club soccer and for two years at Tri-Valley High School. After her third year at Tri-Valley, they moved to Pickerington, Ohio, and Tahnai finished her high school career at Pickerington North.
Tahnai, who led Pickerington North to a final four appearance in Ohio’s largest class, signed with University of Florida. She recorded 38 goals and 16 assists in 96 games and helped lead the Gators to the NCAA Tournament all four of her years, including a Sweet Sixteen appearance as a junior. The midfielder made the All-SEC All-Freshman Team and SoccerBuzz.com Freshman All-America team in 2008 and was an All-American and second-team All-SEC player in 2010.
Myla Annis, left, and her daughter Tahnai celebrate after a game when Tahnai was in college at Florida.
Submitted photo
After earning a bachelor’s degree in sports management with a minor in business administration from Florida, Tahnai was drafted by Women’s Pro Soccer Elite’s New York Flash. The league folded a couple months later, and she caught on with the top women’s league in Iceland and played there from 2012-14, scoring 19 goals in 62 games.
Tahnai was with the National Women’s Soccer League’s Washington Spirit for one preseason, but ended up taking a job as a graduate assistant coach at Division III at Averett University in Virginia and working on her master’s in business administration.
In 2015, Tahnai found out that because Myla was born in the Philippines, she could play for that country. But after attending a national team camp in California, she learned that because Myla had become a naturalized American citizen before Tahnai was born, she no longer had Philippines citizenship.
Myla and Tahnai traveled to the Philippines, and Myla applied for dual citizenship. When that was approved, Tahnai was eligible to play for the Malditas.
Tahnai went back to California in 2017 for an ID camp and made the national team that played in the 2018 Asian Cup. She finally got her passport in April 2018, just in time to play in the Asian Cup in Jordan.
After playing in Australia in 2019 and spending most of 2020 in Columbus, Ohio, during the COVID pandemic, Tahnai spent the early part of 2021 in Costa Rica. Since then, she has spent time living and playing professionally in Iceland.
Tahnai arrived in Sydney on July 1. The Malditas went to Auckland, New Zealand, the first week of July to begin training for the World Cup.
“It’s kind of neat just following her journey,” Myla said. “We’re able to tag along and go to these wonderful players that she’s playing.”
Myla and Teo leave today for New Zealand and plan to meet Myla and Rusty’s two middle children, Taryn, 28, who lives in Chicago; and Trey, 24, who lives in Maryland; in Dunedin prior to Friday’s opener against Switzerland. Then, they’ll head to Wellington, where the Philippines play host New Zealand on July 25; then on to Auckland for the July 30 matchup against Norway.
Unfortunately for the Annises, Rusty won’t be making the trip. He had a health issue, and when the family was applying for passports, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to go. Rusty is fine now, though, and will follow the family’s journey from home.
“It’s personally sad because he did coach his daughter in the beginning of her career,” Myla said. “When I watch her play, I see a little bit of Rusty and the knowledge of soccer. I give a lot of credit to her dad starting her off in that career, and of course, everything else from college on, has been great.
“He has always been kind of in the background,” she added. “She’s been always calling and asking for advice, and he would watch her play and kind of give her advice, like, ‘Do you remember when you do this, this is what you should do.’ She’s still getting great advice from her dad without dad judging or anything like that. So he’s been a really good consultant, per se.”
On FIFA’s website and Instragram, a key player from each country is featured, and Tahnai is the key player to watch for the Philippines.
The top two teams in each of the eight four-team pools qualify for the knockout stage. Following their final game of pool play, Myla and the family are going to hang out in Sydney and wait for the results of the rest of the games before either returning home or staying for more games.
“So we’re kind of on standby,” Myla said. “We hope to get them out of that group and watch them play at that next level. They have a really good chance. I don’t want to jinx it, but out of the four, if we start off early and win the first one, game-on.”
