Destiny driven

The phrase “the gift of life” has little real meaning to most.

FOCUSED ON A DREAM— Above, Tasha-Nicole Terani demonstrates her uncanny ability to control a soccer ball, whether it’s with her head, knees, chest or feet. Right, Terani trains at Bowfield Park with her very first student, Rachel Medina of Oak Park The two have created a strong bond over the last two years with Terani trying to teach the preteen more than just soccer skillsFor the majority of people, getting the opportunity to blossom and grow after birth isn’t a grand reward, it’s just what’s expected.

Westlake graduate and soccer juggling world-record holder Tasha-Nicole Terani isn’t one of these people. Not by a long shot.

Born in Tehran, Iran in 1974, on the eve of the country’s cultural revolution, Terani was put in a covered trash can and abandoned in an alley when she was just weeks old.

If not for her piercing screams, and one heroic Iranian sheriff’s deputy, her life would have ended right there, before it ever got started.

“The person that left me in there was expecting that I would die in there, no question about it. If not for me screaming my head off, I would have,” Terani said. “But a sheriff heard me crying in the alley and he got me out. Luckily, he took me to the local orphanage. It’s a sad story, but it’s what drives me.” It was those same high-pitched screams that caught the attention of Terani’s adopted mother, Barbara, who was volunteering at the orphanage in her free time while her husband, Nick, was in Tehran trying to start a business. The couple had been living in Newbury Park with their two young sons, Tony and Nick Jr., but moved to the Middle East months earlier when an opportunity presented itself.

After consulting one another, the couple decided to adopt the baby girl and bring her back to Southern California. It wasn’t easy, but after almost a year of battling the Iranian courts, the Teranis were given permission to call Tasha their own.

“When the revolution started, I had my business taken from me.

Soon after, when things really got bad, we left, leaving no more wealthier than when I had first arrived,” said Nick Terani, an Iranian native. “So in the end, I believe my divine purpose for going to Iran wasn’t to start a business, it was to get this beautiful girl out of there.” Terani said it was a miracle that she even made it out of the orphanage.

“In that culture and at that time, little girls are not wanted, just boys,” Terani said. “And there were 600 kids in this three-story building—four or five babies to a crib.

Again, screaming my head off helped me survive.” A new beginning Coming to America was a completely new experience for Terani, who by then was almost 2. She quickly used sports, mainly soccer, to connect with her new siblings.

“She was always playing with us in the backyard kicking around a soccer ball,” Tony Terani said. “She had to get tough having two older brothers, and that’s what she did.” Throughout her childhood, Terani showed aptitude in several sports, including basketball, tennis and especially softball. But when it came time to attend Westlake High School, Terani committed to her first love—soccer.

“Soccer is what I loved most,” she said. “It was the passion in my life.” Fiercely independent, Terani moved out on her own at 16 and began to support herself and an apartment by juggling four very different jobs—including working in Los Angeles as a model and in Westlake answering phones for a mortgage company. It was a long way from juggling soccer balls, but Terani eventually proved she could make it on her own, graduating in 1992 with a real estate license already in hand and a budding career in modeling.

Soccer had to be put on the back burner.

“I did whatever I had to do to survive, because that’s what it was about for me, survival,” Terani said.

Terani spent the next eight years in the modeling business, even making an appearance in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

Eventually relocating to Atlanta, Terani knew all along she was destined for a different career route— one that focused on service and helping others—just as she had been helped that day in 1974. She wanted to go from model, to role model.

“I almost felt obligated . . . I felt like I was ‘paying it forward,’” said Terani, referencing the popular 2000 movie. “Thirty years ago someone did me a big favor and now I want to do a million favors.” World record holder Terani knew she wanted to work with kids and soccer, but she also knew getting her training business off the ground would take more than just ordinary drive. She was a gifted athlete with a limited resume, so she decided to do something big.

“We were at a concert one day in Nashville and Tasha tells me, ‘I’m going to break the Guinness world record for soccer speed juggling,’” said Tony Terani, a former standout on the Westlake soccer team. “Of course I said, ‘Good, how you going to do that?’ But she went home that day and started practicing every single day for three months.” On Feb. 22, 2003, in front of a crowd of onlookers at Dekalb Stadium in Atlanta, Terani juggled the ball 123 times with her foot in 30 seconds, shattering the old record of 92. Six months later, in front of a national audience on NBC’s “The Today Show,” Terani beat that record and the men’s, recording 137 touches in 30 seconds.

She also has the men’s and women’s record for most touches in one minute with 269.

“When you see people watch her it’s like their eyes pop out of their heads,” her brother Tony said. “She averages like five touches a second.

It’s almost too fast to watch.” Just after her appearance on “The Today Show,” Terani moved back to Southern California to start teaching her soccer knowledge to the children in the community where she grew up. She named her company SoccerWiz and her first client was Rachel Medina of Oak Park.

“She was the perfect first client.

I needed her and she needed me,” Terani said. “Rachel was the one who showed me that this was my purpose in life.” Immediately, Terani discovered that she wanted to teach more than just soccer. She wanted to use her story of success and survival to inspire children to get more out of life.

“I want them to learn from me that they can do anything they want in life as long as they aren’t scared to go for it,” Terani said. “I’m living proof of that.” Not long after finding a home in Oak Park, Terani was contacted by Remigio Maradona (cousin of the Argentine soccer great, Diego) about being a Special Envoy for Peace with the United Nations’ “Futbol 4 Peace” program. The program uses soccer to promote change in nations affected by war and violence.

It was a perfect fit for an individual whose life has revolved around the desire to help others. The only other soccer Special Envoy for Peace is American soccer great Eric Wynalda, who also graduated from Westlake High. Wynalda and Terani are now good friends.

“Soccer is the most popular sport on the planet,” she said. “It only makes sense that it can be used to bring people together.” Terani’s position with the U.N.

lasts until 2010.

Giving back Having come so far from her humble and nearly deadly beginnings, Terani said a day doesn’t go by when she doesn’t think of that helpless baby girl lying alone, scared and screaming, in a trash can.

“That’s what drives me. That’s what made me who I am today,” Terani said. “I don’t remember being saved, but I never forgot how life almost passed me by. It’s why I tell all my kids I train, ‘Never take this for granted.’” Tasha’s father, Nick, who saw the suffering of his own people in Iran, understands his daughter’s feelings all too well.

“Tasha is grateful for what she has, and she shows it everyday in how she lives her life,” he said.

“For some life is not a gift, it’s just what everybody gets. But for people like us, we know it’s a blessing. I thank God every day for being alive and for being in America. And for letting me find that beautiful little girl.” To get more information or to see Tasha’s world-record breaking performance on “The Today Show,” visit www.soccerwiz.com.