Former DHS volleyball coach fought valiantly against cancer

Doctors didn’t expect her to live through Christmas

Former Destrehan volleyball coach Denise Keller died Jan. 5 after battling breast cancer. According to family, the 49-year-old athlete did not go down without a fight.

“My mom held on longer than any of the nurses or doctors expected her to,” said Denise’s daughter and current Destrehan volleyball coach Alexis Keller. “They said she was strong and her will to live was unbelievably remarkable. She had too much fight in her for us to declare it was over before her heart stopped beating.”

According to her daughter, Keller was sent home from the hospital on Dec. 11, but hospice nurses said she likely wouldn’t make it to Christmas.

Keller was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2013. The former coach had received a mammogram that came up negative only a few months prior, causing her and doctors to mostly dismiss a lump that was detected in May. By the time she was diagnosed, doctors had listed her cancer as stage 3. By early November, doctors had updated her cancer to stage 4.

Keller was most known for her efforts as the head coach of the Destrehan Lady Cats volleyball team. In spite of a playoff upset that knocked them out of contention for a state title, the Keller-helmed Lady Cats ended the 2008 season as district champions.

Alexis, now an English teacher at Destrehan, has since taken over the reigns of the team from her mother.

News of Keller’s diagnosis spurred support from throughout the community. The UNO women’s volleyball team played its “pink” game in late October and sold t-shirts to benefit Keller.  Keller is an alumna of UNO and its volleyball team.The Destrehan baseball team also stepped up to raise money for Keller.

In November, Keller told the Herald-Guide that she was beginning her fourth type, the 16th round overall, of chemotherapy. Keller’s fighting attitude never wavered.

“That doesn’t look to promising to me, but I’m not giving up,” she said.

Keller leaves behind her twin adult children, Weston and Alexis, and a husband, Elmo. Keller and her husband would have been married 24 years in March.

“She was strong and a fighter, and being home on hospice wasn’t going to change that. We were blessed enough to open presents with her on Christmas morning and spend the turning of the year with her,” Alexis said. “My mom was able to talk to us until the very end. Even with her health deteriorating, she was able to show her personality and make us laugh quite a bit over those two weeks.”