Never Settle Awards
Congratulations to the
2025 Never Settle Award Recipients
Randy Kane - 2025 Flashlight Award
Teresa Dos - 2025 Emissary of the Arts Award
Great Bay Tai Chi - 2025 Open Door Award
Larry Isaac - 2025 Enduring Footprint Award
Recognizing Deserving Martial Artists with the Never Settle Awards!
Emissary of the Arts Award
Highlighting those who have contributed to the arts and the community as well, making the world a better place. Ideal nominees would demonstrate the positive qualities of martial arts and martial artists in ways not directly tied to martial arts. Many martial arts schools use positive character traits as a benefit to be grown from continued training.
These nominees demonstrate these qualities routinely beyond the walls of their schools such that people know the nominee based on actions and deeds, not on martial arts rank, ability, or martial arts notoriety.
Teresa Dos
Teresa Dos consistently lives the principles of martial arts—integrity, perseverance, compassion, and respect—in her daily life and community leadership. She trained more than 800 students over 15 years, instilling in them not just technical skill, but the lifelong values of courtesy, discipline, and indomitable spirit. Her impact reaches far beyond the mats: she offered scholarships to underprivileged youth, organized charity events for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and created a safe, empowering environment where young people learned confidence and resilience. Teresa has also carried martial arts values into her broader professional and personal endeavors. She mentors women and minorities in technology, demonstrating perseverance by breaking barriers in both martial arts and the tech industry. She exemplifies compassion by speaking publicly as a survivor of abuse, using her platform to encourage others to heal and find strength. By seamlessly blending martial arts principles with leadership in government, community service, and advocacy, Teresa reflects the true spirit of an “emissary”—someone who brings the values of the dojo into the wider world to inspire positive change.
Flashlight Award
People who make a difference in the arts - no matter rank. While quietly making an impact in their community, they demonstrate that actions speak louder than words in the most positive of ways.
A nomination for this award represents that the nominee's actions were noticed, were appreciated, and are worthy of recognition beyond a simple “Thank You.”
This is the person who needs to be nominated because they would never nominate themselves.
Randy Kane
Randy Kane embodies the Flashlight spirit by combining martial excellence with a deep commitment to community. His superb kata and kumite set a high standard in the dojo, while his weekly “Fitness and Foundations” class extends the benefits of martial arts beyond traditional training and is open to all. By blending karate-inspired drills with strength and endurance exercises, he creates an inclusive environment that builds skill, discipline, and perseverance in participants of all levels. Through his leadership, Randy uplifts others, preserves tradition, and inspires continual growth — living proof of the “never settle” ethos. Randy’s positive attitude, patience, and willingness to help others inspires others to approach their own training and lives with the same dedication and generosity.
Open Door Award
This award recognizes a school or an individual within a school that has created a culture where students would refer to it as home, family. Everyone is welcome and wants to be there - with each other, even though they are all different.
These schools make everyone feel welcome, regardless of what they bring to the table. Past training or not, all ages, physical capacity, and more. These schools accept everyone, and make sure that their first few months is only the beginning of the journey.
Great Bay Tai Chi
Great Bay Tai Chi, located in Salisbury, MA, is owned and operated by Chris Himmel, who also serves as the lead instructor. Chris brings a quiet confidence and a genuine kindness that immediately puts people at ease. His deep knowledge is evident, but never boastful, and his thoughtful guidance creates a welcoming and respectful atmosphere in the studio. Chris possesses a remarkable ability to tailor his teaching to each student’s unique strengths and needs, making the art accessible to various levels and abilities. His patience, clarity, and encouragement foster a learning environment that is not only nurturing and inspiring but also fun, thanks to his approachable teaching style and sense of humor. In 2025, Chris launched a free Daoism Study Group that is open to all. The group has steadily grown to include not only local participants but also people from across the country—many of whom are not students of the school but share a deep interest in Daoist philosophy. Additionally, Chris brings his teaching into the wider community by offering classes at local senior living centers, workshops for businesses, and short-term programs with community organizations.
Enduring Footprint Award
Ideal nominees would stand out for their lasting impact on the martial arts community across a significant period of time. While the extent of the impact may be a result of direct, in person interactions, impact resulting through social media and other internet activity is also worthy of consideration.
Martial artists would not only say that they know who the nominee is but will also be able to discuss how the nominee influenced their training in some way.
Larry Isaac
Larry Isaac is the embodiment of “lead by example and share what I have learned with others.” With many decades of martial arts training across several styles and with many instructors, many of whom call him a friend, he is able to discuss a wide variety of topics and always willing to do so, on and off the mat. He spends significant amounts of time traveling and teaching locally and throughout the country. Larry helps other martial artists to reinvigorate their love and curiosity for the martial arts and many look up to him as a mentor. As a veteran, a martial artist, and an author, he stresses the importance of knowing where you, your martial art, and the pieces of your martial art come from. He encourages those he interacts with to dig deeper as they explore their art, regardless of the particular style. With patience, kindness, and sense of humor he encourages others to ask questions, and then works with them as they explore answers together. Larry’s influence in the martial arts has been felt across multiple decades and will continue to for years to come.
Ripples on Our Pond - In Memoriam
Every year, the martial arts community loses instructors, students, innovators, and family. We would like to recognize martial artists who left our families over the year beginning July 2024.
Karen Lesniak
Cheng Pei-pei
Takayuki Kubota
Benji Radach
Hiromitsu Miura
Richard Norton
Peter Kwong
Mohit Sharma
Isaiah “Iceman” Vicens
Do you want to be a part of the 2026 Never Settle Awards?
We are continually looking for those willing to help us spread the word about the Never Settle Awards. If you support what the Never Settle Awards stands for and want to help, or if you would like reminders of when each nomination opens as well as when voting starts, please let us know.
Learn More
You can learn more about how we got here with this episode of Martial Arts Radio.
You can read the first-year announcement on the Martial Journal Website: here
Together with Martial Journal, whistlekick is proud to sponsor the Never Settle Awards. These awards are designed to recognize the martial artists who give back to their schools, their communities, and the martial arts world at large.
A huge thank you to everyone that voted this year. We're excited to say we received a record number of votes this year and we hope to carry that momentum forward into next year.