On the way to shootaround, Ashly Robinson heard a honeyed melody so sweet it foretold her teammate’s future.
Robinson and Celena Miller were hoopers at the University of Denver at the time, and one day on the walk to the arena to prepare for a game, Miller broke out in song.
“The first time I really heard her sing, I was speechless and I was stunned,” Robinson recalled. “It was a situation where we were walking along, and she thought she could drop a couple notes and it wasn’t going to be a big deal. But I stopped in my tracks and was like, ‘Wait, what? You can sing.’
“‘So don’t stop. You need to run that back, Celena. Like, you need to sing to me all the time. And right now, I need a few more bars out of you. Go ahead and sing that song and absolutely jam it.'”
Fast forward nearly two decades, and Miller is still chasing the confluence of two dreams.
The Denver East girls hoops coach was named the 2026 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s on March 26 at the NCAA Final Four in Phoenix. And while the Hinkley High School alum has been a critical part of Angels head coach Carl Mattei’s staff as the program returned to relevance with consecutive Denver Coliseum appearances, Miller keeps belting out notes that are impossible to ignore.
Under her stage name Lady Los, Miller is one of the top R&B singers in Colorado. Her smooth, soulful voice earned her . She’s performed all around the city, including as an opener for Grammy Award-winning artists Common and Durand Bernarr, and has sang at out-of-state festivals.
Mattei lauded Miller, who coaches the Angels’ C-team and works with the varsity guards, as a unicorn at the intersection of sports and music.
“She’s able to prioritize both basketball and singing/songwriting, and prioritize her time to where she can have extreme success at both,” Mattei said. “She’s a rarity in that sense. She has these dual passions she pursues with equal force.
“When she told me she opened for Common, I’m like, ‘OK, what can’t you do?’ And then she just starts giggling. I’m like, ‘OK, whatever Celena, see you at practice.’ Just imagine me opening for Whitney Houston, and how absurd that would be.”
Finding harmony in dual pursuits
Miller, who originally got to know Mattei by playing for his Mile Hi Magic club, grew up in a musically inclined household. She and her family would sing at church, on the way to games, and harmonize together in the living room.
As a player, Miller was a “tough, greedy kind of a guard in terms of her competitive demeanor and a take-no-prisoners kind of mentality,” explained CU assistant coach , who was Miller’s point guard coach at DU.
Miller translated that fierceness from her game into her coaching, noting that “nothing matters more to me than being able to empower young women through basketball and give them something that they can invest in themselves for their entire life, much like how this game helped fuel my journey through my music career.”
“I hope people can see what the girls on our team are doing — how they’re growing, improving, and succeeding — and I hope it makes them want to come play at East (and not open enroll elsewhere),” Miller added. “I hope they know they’re going to have the best preparation for playing at the next level and they don’t have to leave the city to do that.”
Miller started her coaching career as an assistant at Kent Denver, where she also taught PE. It was during that time that she realized she was in danger of leaving her music dream in the dust. She was a singer in multiple bands, but wasn’t pursuing music full-time.
“The kids were asking me about how I was going after my goals in music, and I realized, I couldn’t speak from experience that I didn’t have,” Miller said. “When they asked me about basketball and how to get somewhere they wanted in the game, I had answers, because I had done that.
“But at that time, I was dedicating all my time and focus to my career, which was education and coaching. And I kept asking myself, ‘Would you be more disappointed if you didn’t even try?’ I had coaches who told me, ‘You only regret the things you don’t do.’ And I didn’t want to have that regret.”
So Miller quit her job as a teacher and dove head-first into music. That was right when the pandemic hit, but Miller pressed on anyway despite not being able to tour.
She officially began her solo career as in 2022, and also founded her own record label and fashion line around the same time, Lady Los Productions. Her upcoming performances are at Equinox Brewing on April 25 as part of, at Two Moons Music Hall on April 30 as part of Freshmode Fest’s , and at Apprentice of Peace Youth Organization on May 1 as part of TheRAPy Sessions.
Robinson says that over the last six years, her favorite part of watching Miller’s full evolution into Lady Los “has been watching her find herself. “
“As a player, Celena always knew the type of player that she was, what she could bring to the game, and she understood where her talent lies,” Robinson said. “It’s the same thing in music. She’s using her craft almost in the same way she did with hoops, to make people feel something.
“For her, the joy of the game is equally tied to the joy of music. She’s finding a way to feel that joy in her life but also when she performs, and people hear her music and the soul that she puts into it, she’s finding a way to give people that joy as well.”
In addition to Miller’s fashion line, the 39-year-old has a day job as a booking agent for a tattoo studio. She’s working on her second studio album while collaborating on singles with various Denver artists and producers and performing with her band, the Moonbeams.
Miller’s ultimate goal is to continue to establish Lady Los, and to sign for her music to be on shows, movies, and ads. She also wants to be a nationally recognized songwriter.
Amid all that, basketball remains at the forefront, too.
“I want to be able to still be in the gym, coaching basketball, cultivating the next generation of basketball stars and point guards,” Miller said. “I also want to be successful landing some gigs (in the music sphere) so I’m not having to stress about daily income, so that I’m able to invest my time and energy and expertise in the gym at Denver East.
“And so when (the bigger music breakthroughs) come, I hope I’m still there and that we’re still doing this and that we have a state championship under our belt. To be able to accomplish both of those pursuits, that would be the ultimate gift.”
