Bigger Than Sports, a youth-operated nonprofit organization founded by Allderdice alumni Ian and Emma Waite, is working to help high school student-athletes prepare for life after athletics.
The organization gained national recognition when it received the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award during the 2025 ESPYs.
Less than 1% of high school student-athletes go on to play professional sports, leaving many uncertain about their career paths once their playing days are over.
Bigger Than Sports addresses this gap by assisting student-athletes, particularly those in marginalized areas, through weekly mentorship initiatives and fireside chats with guest speakers.
Ian Waite serves as the executive director and founder of Bigger Than Sports.
He established the organization to provide student-athletes with a dedicated space to reflect on their identities and long-term futures.
“Athletes oftentimes go through their sports career with no one asking them what happens when it’s over. What happens if it was all taken away from you right now? And at Bigger than Sports, we give them that space to, one, get asked that question, but two, to find an answer to it,” Waite said.
School athletic departments incorporate the organization’s weekly mentorship initiative directly into their programs. The curriculum focuses on self-discovery and goal setting outside of competitive sports.
“We work with student-athletes week by week with youth mentorship, helping them to find out who they are beyond an athlete and then to find out where they want to go beyond sports,” Waite said.
In addition to weekly mentorship, the nonprofit organizes fireside chats featuring guest speakers. Will Howard, quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, participates in these events to share his perspective with student-athletes.
“I’ve seen it firsthand so many times with teammates of mine, whether it was high school or after college, you know, that don’t really have a plan and just watching that and seeing it happen live, it makes me want to give back to these younger kids,” Howard said.
During the sessions, Howard stresses that career paths in athletics and beyond rarely proceed strictly according to plan. He draws on his own journey from high school through his college years at Kansas State to his career in professional football.
“Coming out of high school, I thought I had this plan developed for what my time at Kansas State was going to look like and then how I was going to transition to the league and then even during my time at Kansas State, it changed a little bit and I was like, ‘Oh, now it’s going to look like this.’ There’s always wrenches thrown in it, and you can never really count on things going the way you want it to go,” Howard said.
Bigger Than Sports aims to build its scope and reach to a level of national recognition similar to long-standing organizations like the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Clubs.
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