AKATO Celebrates 50 Years
On March 28, 2026, over 150 people from all around the globe gathered in Dallas to celebrate this milestone. During the day, 75 black belts and students attended expert seminars by Tommy Vaughn, Kelly Cox, Colin Wee, Ysabel Merhout and Jolie Gargiulo. The evening banquet featured demonstrations and special speakers and, of course, the AKATO Student Awards. Mr. Yates started the Southwest TaeKwonDo Association in 1976, when he was just 25 years old. Now it has grown into a world-wide organization. We are still committed to furthering the traditions of the martial arts as we enter our sixth decade.

North Texas Karate–Jax Kutie
Denison Family Karate–Anna Atchley
Hands On Karate–Austin Davis
Plano Y Karate–Anindith Srinivasan
Cooper Martial Arts–Catalin Danulescu, Fabio Leonardi
Richardson Y Karate–Nick Paldino, Alejandro Sanchez
Bonstaff TaeKwonDo–Kylie Tillinger
Alpha Self-Defense– Eddy Thomson
Hidden Sword–Micholas Walter
Joong Do Kwan–Will Just
Murphy NC Martial Arts–Ayden Burns
Mesquite TaeKwonDo–Donald Dunn
AKATO Instructor of the Year–Alexis Romero

See photos from the 50 Year Anniversary on the Gallery Pages

New AKATO Black Belts
Congratulations to all promoted in 2025-26
First Dan: Bethany Edmonson, Maxime Desmarias, Devin Buckley, Leah Sheng Su Farley, Randy Shine
Second Dan: Jeffrey Chou, Angel Perez
Third Dan: Daniel Cohen, Rick Barton
Fourth Dan: Kevin Buckley, Lianne Buckley
Special 5th Dan recognition: Don Oliver Sr.
Seventh Dan: Ceaser Johnson

Keith D. Yates Retires from the Richardson YMCA
Mr. Yates actually started teaching at the Town North YMCA as a brown belt assistant instructor in 1967. He was the head instructor at Allen Steen's Texas Karate Institute on Hillcrest Avenue in Dallas for many years and when Steen retired in 1976, Mr. Yates began teaching at various locations around North Texas including SMU, several dance studios and recreation centers until he became the martial arts teacher at the Richardson YMCA in 1982. He would also teach at the Garland Y, at Richland College, and at the Cooper Aerobics Institute. He oversaw other YMCA classes at the Lake Highlands Y and the Plano Y. Now after all these decades of service to the YMCA he is retiring from his regular classes in Richardson. TO BE CLEAR, he will continue to teach the black belt weapons classes in Dallas and the Tai Chi classes in McKinney (and, of course special seminars) but the Richardson Y held a retirement celebration on Saturday, April 20, 2024, with over 75 people in attendance including many of his early black belts. Congratulations on decades of service to the Y.