Bigger Than Sports: How Amherst’s Ian Waite turned a dream into an ESPY Award

Ian Waite fell to the floor, his body numb and his surroundings suddenly still.

The 2023 Amherst Regional High School graduate and rising junior at Lynn University in Florida had just learned of life-changing news. Waite was selected as the winner of the 2025 Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award, which is presented annually at the ESPYs by former tennis legend and pioneer of women’s sports herself, Billie Jean King.

Last summer, Waite founded Bigger Than Sports, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering high school student-athletes in lower income communities to reach their full potential outside of the playing surface — preparing them for life after high school sports, whether that’s in college or the workforce.

Bigger Than Sports’ first-ever event took place last July, and the one-year anniversary of BTS was celebrated in June. Fast-forward a year and now Waite is going to be on stage at the ESPYs in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 16 at 8 p.m. (the event is televised on ABC), accepting the award on behalf of his team that contains 70-plus staff, board members and volunteers.

He initially was too nervous to look at the email sent by the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award selection committee, so he told his girlfriend, Julia, to open it and read it aloud while he stood nearby. After she read the first few paragraphs and the winner still hadn’t been announced, Waite ran to the laptop, scrolled down, and froze.

In big, bold writing, the word ‘CONGRATULATIONS’ stared him in the face. He dropped to the floor, equally shocked as he was overcome with excitement.

What once started as an idea with his sister and a handful of their close friends has turned into an ESPY award that comes with it a $10,000 grant.

“I still ask my team to pinch me, because it doesn’t feel real,” Waite said. “It’s such an honor, and I’m just so grateful that there’s an opportunity that’s available for young leaders. I opened the email, and I had my girlfriend read it to me because I was too nervous. It started out with a paragraph saying how there were a ton of applications and it was an extremely hard process. And then boom; in bold it said, ‘Congratulations, you have won the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award.’”

As he lay sprawled out on the ground, he didn’t have many words. The 20-year-old Waite’s brain raced back to the past 365-plus days of tireless work and planning from him and his team — all of whom dedicate their time to BTS without receiving any form of compensation. And then he thought about the future, and how this $10,000 grant is only going to expand and grow his organization.

When he finally gathered himself and collected his thoughts, Waite called his family, close friends and everyone on the Bigger Than Sports staff.

“I told them two things,” he recalled. “One, this is going to change our lives forever. But two, this is just a sliver of the feelings we’re going to have a few years from now. We’re just getting started.”

By the numbers, Bigger Than Sports had 17 high school students go through their curriculum — guided by members of the staff — this past year. Each one filled out a post-impact survey that BTS offers, and Waite said all 17 confirmed they have a confident and aligned path for their plans post-high school.

Bigger Than Sports has hosted a number of events and tournaments ranging from 3-on-3 basketball to flag football to even kickball, among others, to raise money to further their curriculum and help spread the word of what BTS has to offer. At these tournaments, there is music, food trucks, snack bars, numerous raffles, community pop-up tents and representatives of different colleges to provide the student-athletes with information about higher-education.

Over 400 families signed up and/or attended these tournaments since last summer.

At one of those events, a student Waite worked closely with lit up as he checked a notification on his phone. He had just been accepted into his first college. He ran up to Waite to tell him the news, and the two shared an emotional embrace.

“It’s those moments that I’m most proud of,” Waite said.

Perhaps the most impressive part about BTS’ surge from a long shot dream to an ESPY winner is how swiftly it unfolded. Only a year after its inception, Bigger Than Sports has orchestrated a plethora of successful events, the student-athletes they’ve so far worked with have benefited greatly from their educational courses, and now they are going to be recognized on a national scale in front of sports’ biggest icons.

That may sound far-fetched, but if you ask Waite, this was always a part of his plan.

“I have two answers,” Waite said when asked if he thought an award as large as an ESPY was possible in such a short amount of time. “The first one is simply no, I didn’t think it was. I have been applying to grants all summer, reaching out to foundations, and I’ve had the door closed on me so many times because of my age and because the credibility of our organization.

“But secondly,” he continued, “I knew from the start. I have been talking about Bigger Than Sports from the second I started it like it’s already made it. When I was working as a janitor, every single time I had a break I would go and read ‘Non-profits for Dummies,’ just learning how to start it up. I’ve known that this was going to be successful from the jump because it’s a problem that needs to be solved. When I saw the ESPY application, before I even filled it out or heard any news about who was going to win, I texted the whole BTS team and said ‘Hey guys, we’re going to win an ESPY.’ And look at us now.”

When Waite walks the red carpet sharply dressed and later accepts his ESPY on Wednesday, he’ll then fly back to the Northeast and start preparing for Bigger Than Sports’ next event — a 3-on-3 basketball tournament set for Saturday in Seymour, Conn. at Seymour Middle School. Once the dust settles from that, it’ll be time to put that $10,000 grant into motion.

The plan with the money is to put it toward the BTS staff that goes into schools and teaches student-athletes. More funding will help them receive further training and do the necessary background checks to legitimize their roles so they can officially be implemented into school systems. Waite said that Bigger Than Sports was denied from most grants as well as ignored by larger organizations/foundations because it’s run solely by Gen Z individuals and lacks credibility.

But once each staff member is able to receive an official title thanks to the grant money, and with the national recognition of the ESPY, it’ll show that BTS is a certified non-profit organization with a clear goal — not a club ran by college kids.

“This $10,000 grant, it’s life-changing for Bigger Than Sports,” Waite said. “It’s going to help progress our organization and show people that this is legit. This is a non-profit with a mission to make an impact, and we take it very seriously. Bigger Than Sports is the next Boys & Girls Club, the next YMCA, the next Play 60.”

What started as a dream has turned into reality for Ian Waite. A 20-year old kid, who spent his high school days in Amherst, will be at the ESPYs, rubbing shoulders with sports legends.

It may be the experience of a lifetime for some, but Waite believes there are plenty more just like this to come for him and his team at Bigger Than Sports.