When it came to hanging up her stick, club, racquet or bib in myriad codes, Hiha didn't procrastinate.
"I accepted that I had to stop playing as I wasn't doing the team any good.
"We all always put the team first," says the great grandmother who played, captained, coached, selected and managed hockey teams from 1951 to 1976, not only for the Bay but Auckland, Otago and Bay of Plenty.
She instigated the annual NZ Maori hockey rep tournament in 1992.
Tennis, softball and netball were also her passions, competing at provincial level and securing national titles in some of them.
A right wing in hockey, she gravitated towards centre forward because of her ability to sniff out goals.
"I scored lots of goals but we didn't count them in those days," she says with a laugh.
She was a Bay basketball representative who "ran around everywhere" in any position although in Bay rep netball had the first dibs on the goal attack bib.
"Height didn't matter in hockey - just skills, speed and a good team."
Her husband was 6' 2" when injury prematurely curtailed his Magpies career (1954-57, 1962-64) but "nowadays you have 6' 6" locks".
The couple married at Matata on December 18, 1954, having met at Ardmore Teachers' Training College three years earlier.
She fondly recalls making the cut of a dozen training college students selected nationally for a year's training at the Dunedin Teachers' College as PE and health specialists.
Among them was Noel Hayman, a PE teacher who excelled in sports.
The sporty husband and wife taught in Waipawa from May 1955 to 1958 before shifting to a two-teacher Maori school at Horoera (1958-62).
They returned to Napier, where she taught at predominantly intermediate schools.
She retired from full-time work in 1997 and he a year later although they offered their services to myriad boards, trusts, committees and community groups.
Of Maori, Welsh and Scottish descent, Hiha puts her longevity down to fitness and a healthy eating regime.
"Oh, I still eat my share of rubbish. I love chocolates," she says.
The couple had four children - Anne Aroha, 59, Kanui Allana, 57, Shane, 55, and Shelley Moana, 53.
"Having a baby was part of the deal so I just kept playing sport," she says.
Anne, of Napier, was a Wellington and Bay hockey rep.
Kanui, who is a missionary in Hawaii and will be jetting to Switzerland soon, went on to become a left back for the New Zealand women's hockey team.
Shane is the Te Aute College principal and played hockey and rugby to a good level.
Shelley is massage therapist with the three-time ANBL champion New Zealand Breakers basketball franchise in Auckland.
She played rep hockey for the Bay, Wellington and NZ Maori as well as coaching the national side for several years.
"They were expected to play sport in those days like they were expected to do their homework," Hiha says.
"They were all good students and sportspeople."
Keeping up with the daily chores at home, as a mother, were equally challenging.
"Cooking meals was demanding but Heitia always helped me and he looked after the kids when I went to training."
They have seven grandchildren, all Shane's offspring.
"I have a great grandchild in Brisbane."
Watching her mokopuna run around at the park is something she relishes.
"I love watching my mokopuna, who play in hockey and netball teams as well as tennis. I barrack and support them.
"Like most grandparents, I take them oranges and shout them something after the games," says a stalwart who dedicated time to whet the appetite of Bay youngsters who were impartial to hockey and tennis.
Hiha says a sense of camaraderie at the height of her playing days transcends any court or on-field exploits or airs of pomposity in assuming the mantle of leadership or coaching roles.
"It's all the friends I made. They will always be my happiest memories.
"I remember all of them and I keep in touch with them, too."
She still has a rapport with fellow NZ reps Jan Neil, a left back, and Lynley Parker, a goalkeeper.
"We meet off and on and definitely have dinner once a year before Christmas," she says of the pair who live in Taradale.
The advent of TV and internet means she can stay in contact with the others around the country and world.
"Emails are just fantastic, aren't they?"
Affiliated to the Ngati Rangitihi, Ngati Whakaue, Ngati Pikiao, Tuhourangi iwi (tribes), Hiha and her husband are fiercely aligned to the Treaty of Waitangi celebrations and proud of their heritage.
She was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in the Queen's Birthday Honour's List in 2009 for her services to sport, mainly hockey.
