AMHERST — There is no better feeling than when an idea turns into a plan, and that plan comes to fruition.

Ian Waite would be the first to co-sign that.

After a year of non-stop work to organize an action plan and find people with a similar vision to hop on board, Waite, a 19-year old sophomore at Lynn University in Florida and graduate of Amherst-Pelham Regional High School, founded Bigger Than Sports.

Bigger Than Sports is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering student-athletes in lower income communities to reach their full potential, according to Waite. They provide the resources and guidance needed to create and execute comprehensive plans for life after high school.

And on Saturday at Mill River Recreation Area in Amherst, Bigger Than Sports is hosting its first-ever event – a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The event will feature a DJ, food trucks, snack bars, several raffles, community pop-up tents and much more.

So often student-athletes have the mindset of “boom or bust” when it comes to sports. If they don’t make the pros, or get a scholarship in college, there is nowhere to go.

Waite and the Bigger Than Sports crew see otherwise, and they’ve built courses for student-athletes to take post-high school to help steer them in the right direction – finding a new path beyond their playing surfaces; whether that’s college, trade school or finding a full-time job.

“This weekend is hopefully going to help everyone realize that a happy life is rooted within a purposeful life,” Waite said. “Playing sports often gives these student-athletes purpose, and it can get taken away from them because it’s not realistic to go to the NBA or MLB. So when they lose that sport after high school or college, it becomes really hard to transition and move on. That’s where we come in.”

Waite grew up in Pittsburgh before moving to Amherst ahead of his sophomore year of high school. Growing up and witnessing some of his friends experience the struggle of finding direction and purpose outside of school, he was inspired at a young age to help.

His first goal was to be a teacher. But following his first year of college, Waite’s appetite grew larger. He wanted to impact and lead as many people as he could, on a wider scale. Thinking back to his upbringing, Waite pinpointed the defining moment in life to one specific time frame – where a single decision completely changed the outlook one way or another for many of his friends.

And in that moment, the light bulb went off in his head, and Bigger Than Sports was born.

“I have friends where I grew up all getting left behind, not only financially but within their own inner happiness,” Waite said. “And I see how important of a transitional stage the life after high school is, and if you don't make that plan or have a goal of where you want to reach, you will get left behind. That's how these low-income, high-poverty, low-educational-attainment-rate communities cycles prolong. These students don't have the resources or the guidance to get to the point where they are getting into college or have a job straight out of high school. We want to help them realize that it is possible.”

The first bump in the road when trying to launch the Bigger Than Sports organization was having the platform to do it. He’s only in Amherst – where he built connections throughout high school – for the summers, but the rest of his time is spent down in Boca Raton, Fla. at Division II Lynn University. How was he going to gain trust in an area where nobody knew him?

Well, he took care of that this past school year as a freshman. He introduced himself to as many people as possible, and found five other like-minded peers who shared the same vision. His five board members include Emma Waite (COO and Chairman of the Board), Victoria Liverpool (Director of Strategic Development), Edwin Perez (Director of Programming and Outreach), Holland Gillis (Director of Marketing) and Anabel O’Donnell (Director of Education).

Now with a large, successful event soon under his belt this Saturday, the Bigger Than Sports train is certainly chugging along – and it’ll be much easier for the crew to make an immediate impact in the Sunshine State.

“The community that’s helping me start this is within Hampshire County, but it’s going to be filed in Florida,” Waite said. “The network of people I have here are helping and supporting me to go and do this mission in communities that need it more than Amherst. During my first year of college, I told everyone I could what my mission is, how I want to impact the youth on a larger scale – I just didn’t have the idea to run with or the team to make it happen. Now I do, and I’m going to utilize that. I have an amazing board, and we’re all young. We like to say we’re, ‘The youth saving the youth.’”

As Saturday’s friendly competition takes place, the Hampshire County community is encouraged to come watch, hang out and support Bigger Than Sports and its growing family.

There will be a playground for the kids as well as lowered hoops on the other court for them to keep busy. The BTS team also coordinated with Greenfield Community College and Western New England University to have them bring representatives from their admissions office. They each will have a college-fair style pop-up tent.

Bigger Than Sports has set up a GoFundMe (https://gofund.me/15ac2358) for the event, with all money raised going toward helping put the Bigger Than Sports educational programs and courses into place.

“I would love for the community to see the impact that they create,” Waite said. “The money that we get from this tournament is going to be used to put these programs into place right away.”

The event starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday, with registration beginning at 9 a.m. Registration fee is $20 (pay upon arrival at venue), and teams will compete for a $300 cash prize.