Without Limits: 2020 Perspective

About Without Limits Ultimate

Without Limits' goal is to foster relationships within the women’s ultimate community at the youth, college, and club levels, as well as promote and further the growth and development of the women’s division. They achieve this through tournaments, skills clinics, resource manuals and by creating opportunities for interaction between women’s ultimate players of all ages and skill levels. 

 

These goals have been made difficult to accomplish with a cancelled season, as you can imagine. We chatted with Kyra Cataby about the effects of COVID-19 on the organization.

How has the pandemic affected Without Limits? How many events have you had to cancel?

We canceled our last spring college tournament (Rodeo) as well as our club tournament (Heavyweights), two of our biggest tournaments of the year. We're anticipating the cancellation of our two fall events as well. We feel like we'll be lucky if we get to salvage any of the Spring 2021 season.

Without Limits, in partnership with GUM, released a High School Girls' Ultimate Resource Manual. We've seen it shared on social media over the past few months; how has it been received? 

Compared to our usual presence, we’ve been relatively quiet on social media because there are so many important things happening in the world and we haven't wanted to detract from that.

The Manual had been in final editing and layout stages since last fall and the final product ended up being ready at a bit of an awkward time. Despite the timing, we're trying to give the content and our amazing authors some visibility because we really believe that the content is very relevant to what's happening in the world.

Ultimate has given us the space to develop our leadership skills and we hope that the Manual inspires people to be the best players and leaders they can be, both on and off the field.

You can view the Manual here, and do share with your networks!

What is the biggest effect, in your mind, of the event cancellations? Biggest disappointment?

I think we're most sad about the (impending) cancellation of Fusion in the fall. Fusion would mark the 10-year anniversary of Without Limits. We were really excited to celebrate this milestone. 

A player clinic at Fusion 2017. Read our event recap blog here.

With almost a full year affected/likely affected, what organizational changes are you considering?

This is the first time we've had a chance to breathe and not be actively planning our next event. For Michelle, this is the first time this has happened since she started running tournaments over a decade ago! We have more time and opportunity to spend on our "real" jobs and on our families, and we're starting to talk more about how we can find a better work-life balance when ultimate resumes. 

What would be your best-case scenario coming out of this? Goals for 2021 or beyond?

When we think of best-case scenario, we hope for the best for our friends whose livelihoods are based in ultimate, in the greater sports industry, and/or whose lives have been impacted.

We know people are going through a lot right now and we hope that we can do our part to help our community (both inside and outside of ultimate) bounce back.

As far as Without Limits goes, we're looking forward to seeing folks on the field when it's safe to do so! 

 

You can purchase Without Limits apparel in our online store. A portion of all sales goes to supporting this amazing organization. Visit their website for more information and follow @wlultimate on Twitter.