It has been about a year since Cooper Lyles, 18, passed in an industrial accident in St. Augustine.
A recent high school graduate, he had been working to save money for college—doing what he had always done: keeping his head down, following a plan, moving forward.
A year later, that plan is no more. His absence is everywhere: in the quiet of the kitchen, in rooms that feel too large for the family he left behind.
“Everyone else moves forward,” his big sister, Ashlynn Lyles, said. “For us, it felt like time stopped.”
The anger that once accompanied the pain has softened with the passing months. But the loss has not diminished, only changed in shape.
“It’s still really hard,” Ashlynn said. “But I’ve been able to look back at memories now and smile. The ache is still right behind it.”
Out of that evolving sorrow came the Cooper Lyles Memorial Scholarship, a way for the family to transform loss into something purposeful.
Established in his name, it supports students who reflect the humble grit, kindness, and discipline Cooper embodied at St. Augustine High School.
“We wanted a way to keep his light alive,” his father, Jason Lyles, told The Citizen. “It’s a way to remember him, and, to be honest, for us — for me — to deal with his loss.”
Andrea Lyles, Cooper’s stepmother and a member of the foundation’s board, emphasized the character-driven nature of the award.
“Cooper was quiet and led by example,” she said. “We’re looking for students who’ve faced challenges, who show perseverance and compassion—the kind of qualities he carried every day.”
The scholarship is not intended to reward numbers on a transcript or points on a scoreboard. Instead, it honors character—tenacity paired with compassion, effort paired with humility.
One recipient will receive $5,600 in honor of Cooper’s lacrosse number, 56. Multiple $1,500 “Play Like Coop” scholarships will also be given out.
Additional funds raised through donations and an annual golf tournament support other causes, including a St. Augustine-based youth lacrosse program.
For Cooper’s mother, Aundrea Lyles, the scholarship has become a salve—a way to channel a punishing maternal grief into something constructive.
“It doesn’t get easier,” she said, noting that Cooper’s room remains exactly as it was the last night he slept there.
“There’s just this big hole left behind. He was my baby. But there are signs of him around me all the time—out of nowhere, in a butterfly, in a sunflower. I still feel his presence,” she said.
Ashlynn described her younger sibling as calm and observant, wise beyond his years. Unlike so many of his peers, Cooper had little interest in social media dramas or school gossip.
“Someone once told me he had the eyes of someone whose soul knew he wasn’t going to be here for a long time,” she said.
Cooper’s older brother, Ethan, watched his little sibling grow into himself through lacrosse—a sport he hadn’t planned to pursue. After deciding not to continue football, Cooper attended one of Ethan’s lacrosse games at St. Augustine.
The team was small, and Cooper was offered a spot. There was no junior varsity team, so as a freshman he joined varsity.
“He didn’t play much that first year,” Ethan said. “But being on the same team with my brother was the biggest blessing.”
What followed was transformation. By his second year, Cooper was beginning to understand the game. By his third and fourth, the change was unmistakable.
“He hit the gym every day—by himself or with a friend,” Ethan said. “No one pushed him. He lost weight, got faster, became an athlete. Watching that growth—from a boy to a young man—was the greatest thing I’ve ever witnessed as a big brother.”
As a senior, Cooper’s leadership helped carry St. Augustine High School to its first district championship in years. “That’s where ‘Play Like Coop’ comes from,” Ethan said.
In the aftermath, the family’s imperatives have been altered. They gather more. They slow down. They center on what matters.
On what would have been Cooper’s birthday, they all met for brunch—small rituals stitched into days that continue on without him.
They carry both his absence and his influence together: one a measure of what was taken, the other of what endures.
If you would like to nominate a student-athlete for the scholarship, you can reach the Cooper Lyles Foundation here or text at (352) 427-7566.
