Almost 20 years ago, a reporter asked Tita Ahuna how she wanted to be remembered.

This was the day the University of Hawai'i Wahine volleyball team was finishing up its regular season. Ahuna was a senior, nearing the end of a college career that more than lived up to the promise of her 13-letter high school athletic record.

Tita couldn't answer the question.

Maybe she knew she wasn't even close to being pau.

Even after bringing home the national championship banner that year, Tita wasn't ready to be "remembered." There was more.

She went on to get her master's degree. She coached Kamehameha boys' volleyball to the state title, twice, and led Hawai'i Pacific University's women's team to the NCAA Division II national title, twice.

Last week, after 10 winning seasons at HPU, Ahuna announced her resignation. With her record of continued achievement, it is safer to say that she has "moved on" rather than "stepped down" or "quit." Tita has never quit. She has always managed to move on and up.

Not like it's anyone's business but her own, though it's hard not to think of her as "our" Tita. She has come to mean so much to so many who never even met her.

Tita Ahuna is in that strange zone between civilian and "local celebrity" where, because of talent and accomplishments, people feel entitled to make guesses and projections about her life. It's one thing when a person seeks out that spotlight by running for political office or sending out 8-by-10 glossies. But when someone becomes a public figure simply because of the excellence they've demanded from themselves, it isn't always fair or welcomed.

There was an occasion when Dave Shoji ordered Tita to work out on the stationary bike because she didn't make weight. That night, a television reporter told Hawai'i that Tita had gotten mad and quit. People panicked. It wasn't true, and Shoji had to do damage control the next day. Tita hadn't quit. That's not in her.

So while her tenure as women's volleyball coach at HPU may be over, it is safe to anticipate more from Tita Ahuna.

(Certainly, there are more than a few fans offering prayers that Shoji will make room for her on his staff.)

In February 1986, Tita told Advertiser sportswriter Ann Miller: "For a local girl, to come to the University of Hawai'i and play volleyball is the highest you can go."

Though we can recognize the truth in that statement, every Tita Ahuna fan knows she's not done showing us the "highest you can go."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.