Kandace Washington turns son’s legacy into a lifeline

On April 12, 2025, two days before a grand jury was set to hear the case that had consumed his life for months, Kyren Lacy was gone. He was 24. 

A star wide receiver with an NFL future in front of him, Lacy was reduced online to a single accusation. After a December 2024 chain-reaction crash that claimed the life of a 78-year-old man, Louisiana State Police charged Lacy with negligent homicide, felony hit-and-run, and reckless operation, alleging he caused the crash by illegally passing another vehicle. But a grand jury later declined to indict him, determining the evidence did not support the claim that he caused the fatal collision. Lacy died by suicide just days before the grand jury was scheduled to hear the case. The court of public opinion, however, had already delivered its verdict long before any courtroom could. The weight of that judgment became too much for the young athlete to bear.

His mother, Kandice Washington, has spent 12 years as a school counselor, guiding other people’s children through exactly this kind of pressure. She never imagined she’d need those same instincts to try to save her own son — or that she wouldn’t get the chance.

Now she’s turning that grief into something else: a foundation built in Kyren’s name, meant to catch the next young athlete before the internet, the courts, and the weight of it all close in.

“I was talking with my therapist, and she was saying to me that I have all this love and care for Kyren, and she said, ‘You have to put it somewhere,’” Washington said. 

That conversation became the foundation’s origin story — a way to turn her love for her son into something he would have wanted to see come to life.

Remembering Kyren

Washington is intentional about keeping the focus on who her son was, not just what happened to him.

“I want people to know that Kyren was a gentle giant, he had a huge heart,” she said, describing him as someone who loved his community, showed up for the people around him, and was known for making others laugh.

The K2 Foundation’s first initiative is direct: Covering counseling costs for student-athletes. If an athlete has insurance but can’t afford the copay, the foundation pays it. If an athlete is uninsured, K2 covers up to five counseling sessions in full.

“So our foundation is based on offering support for athletes,” said Washington, pointing to the gap she saw between the pressure college athletes face and the resources actually available to them — especially at the level Kyren competed at.

That pressure, she says, has only intensified with the rise of NIL money and the always-on nature of social media, where an athlete’s public image can flip overnight.

“I think social media is the biggest issue right now, because one second you’re doing something good, you’re a hero,” Washington said. “And the second you do something wrong, the things that people say online are really atrocious.” 

She added that athletes are still full-time students underneath the spotlight — juggling classes, practice, and a social life like anyone else their age, even as the public treats them like they aren’t.

The mission, at its core, is about shifting perspective. 

“The core message is, and the mission is to always be a simple thing of changing your perspective,” Washington said.

“I wanted to use my platform to recognize any and every single organization that feels unseen,” Walker said. “So if God gave me this platform, I’m going to use it for the good things.”

For Washington, that kind of visibility is exactly what a young nonprofit needs. The foundation is still building out its website and formal infrastructure, and she says volunteers and donations go a long way. 

“The biggest contribution is people donating and helping out,” she said, “so being able to get help from other companies or organizations and partnering with other people has really been a help for the foundation to go above and beyond.”

Taking the message to Houston

Washington’s story has resonated across the country, particularly among those who see firsthand the unique pressures young Black athletes carry. Andrea Odom, co-founder of Black Sports Moms, said Kyren’s story struck her immediately, and she’s invited Washington to deliver the keynote address at the organization’s upcoming conference in Houston on July 18.

For Odom, the harsh treatment of student-athletes hits close to home. “As a mom of an athlete—and really just a mom of any kid, period—you don’t understand the pressure that your kids face, and every child is different,” Odom said. She noted that when an athlete performing on the brightest stages under the brightest lights makes one slip-up, they face a “court of public opinion that is absolutely relentless.”

“In this case with Kyren Lacy, he was tried in the court of public opinion and never even made it to court,” Odom said, comparing the relentless online backlash to being outnumbered by bullies with no way to fight back. It’s why she believes Washington’s message is so vital: People need to practice online kindness and remember there is a real person on the other end of every comment.

These real-world challenges are precisely what Odom’s organization aims to address. While Black Sports Moms covers foundational topics every year—like negotiation, redlining contracts, building a support team, and social media do’s and don’ts—this year’s conference is tackling modern complexities head-on. “We are doing a session dedicated to the transfer portal because that is extremely confusing for people,” Odom said. “We’re also doing something called the ‘ABCs of eligibility reclassification.’ These are all things that sports families think about throughout their journey.” And of course, tackling mental health.

Odom said the story of an athlete performing under bright lights, only to be turned on after a single misstep, felt painfully familiar. She described the online backlash athletes face as relentless, comparing it to being outnumbered by bullies with no way to fight back.

“In this case with Kyren Lacy, he was tried in the court of public opinion and never even made it to court,” Odom said. She pointed to that as part of the reason Washington’s message matters: people need to be kinder online, and remember there’s a real person on the other end of every comment.

Looking Ahead

Washington’s long-term goal is for K2 to become one of the most dependable resources available to student-athletes navigating the mental toll of competing at a high level — with a full roster of therapists who understand the specific pressures of that world.

She measures success not by scale, but by whether the foundation reaches even one athlete who needs it.

“I feel him every time I do something at every event that we have,” Washington said. “I think he would be very proud of the work and the family coming together and just making sure that this is a really successful foundation.”