Story Tools

Email this story | Print this story

Indexes

Today's Stories

Last 7 Days

Top Blogs

• Faces of tragedy

• Investigation continues into crash as canal gives up yet another body

• Family identifies body of relative who died in accident

• Local fire, medical squads frequently respond to submerged vehicles

• Business district to get street lights

• Correction

November 2nd, 2009

• Deputies name suspect in fatal Acampo shooting

November 7th, 2009

• Lodi High graduate was at Fort Hood

• Lining up for flu shots in Lodi

• Tour packs buses as birdwatchers admire Sandhill cranes

• City of Lodi staff looking into possibility of limiting number of taco trucks

• Daytime thieves targeting Lodi homes

• Lodi High School rally featured on 'Good Day Sacramento'

• Out of control

• Homicide suspect Anthony Hubbard arraigned

• Regional Roundup

• New Lodi Memorial rule to combat spread of H1N1: Visitors must be older than 16

November 6th, 2009

• Short sales make up nearly half of Lodi market

• Regional Roundup

• Lodi man accused of smuggling drugs, weapons for inmates at state prison

• 'I-5 Strangler' sentenced to 6 terms of life

• Jury convicts Acampo man of torture, assault of his girlfriend

• Young girl is 200,000th person to assemble AIDS, HIV care kit

• Woman in wheelchair struck by car

November 5th, 2009

• A lower Lodi Lake

• Streetside scarecrows

• San Joaquin County considers moratorium on new Williamson Act contracts

• Speakers address Lodi Unified School District budget shortfalls, plea to keep programs

• Armed robbers still targeting Lodi shops

• Regional Roundup

• California voters have final say over $11 billion water bond

• Weekend bus service to continue until Lodi City Council makes decision

• Paul Tebbel shines spotlight on sandhill cranes

• Your complete guide to Sandhill Crane Festival

• David Diskin is first to give an invocation under new city of Lodi policy

• Man wanted in Acampo homicide gives up to San Joaquin County Sheriff's detectives

November 4th, 2009

• Candle fire

• Rep. Jerry McNerney sets telephone town hall for Thursday

• Jason Behrmann is unanimously named Galt's city manager

• Regional Roundup

• Galt City Council argues over ordinance hiring residents

• San Joaquin County sues state over prison hospital planned for Stockton

• Big win for Allen Baroni in reclamation election

• California sends Democratic loyalist John Garamendi to Congress

• Bicycling father raising awareness of teen suicide

• Lodi City Council weighs raising fares to restore some bus service

November 3rd, 2009

• 500 attend service for Kyle Coumas

• Correction

• Galt considers ordinance that would require city contractors to hire locally

• Regional Roundup

• Have you seen a missing guide dog puppy in Lodi?

• Galt man dies after weekend Highway 12 crash

• Jason Behrmann is top candidate for Galt city manager

• Deputies name suspect in fatal Acampo shooting

• Clarification

November 2nd, 2009

• Downtown Lodi trick or treat

• Public Meetings

• Correction

• Kyle Coumas funeral today

• 27-year-old man shot to death Saturday night in front of Acampo home

• Regional Roundup

• Group investigates reports of haunting

• Sandhill Cranes Festival comes to Lodi next weekend

• Lamborghini lovers gather for show, fine wine, luncheon in Woodbridge

• Lodi's 'Biggest Loser' Christy Richesin runs 5K Halloween race

The following stories have received the most reader comments during the last 7 days.

• Bible is entwined with American civic life (135)
• I predict: A conservative tide will rise in 2010 (73)
• David Diskin is first to give an invocation under new city of Lodi policy (70)
• The Treaty of Tripoli hoax (60)
• Universal health care solves big problems (54)
• Here's what my father knew about the assassination of JFK (35)
• Stuck in neutral? Hardly! (35)
• Words from our forefathers (27)
• City of Lodi staff looking into possibility of limiting number of taco trucks (24)
• Majority cannot deprive the minority (23)

ADVERTISEMENT

Son of Lodi resident aboard Olympic sailing team

Olympian Austin Sperry didn't spend a large chunk of his life in San Joaquin County, but the short time he resided in the Central Valley laid the foundation for his quest to reach the Olympic games this year.

Sperry, a former Stockton resident, whose father Brooks currently lives in Lodi, teamed with father-in-law John Dane to qualify for the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing in the Men's Sailing Star class division.

The 1-2 punch of Austin as the crew and Dane as the skipper beat out 19 other squads to claim top billing at the U.S. Olympic Sailing Trials last October in Los Angeles. Only one team from each division made the cut.

"Only one team goes from each event at the trials, so it was an impressive win from that point," Brooks said. "This is his first time in Olympics in is his third try. In the two trials before, he finished somewhere in the ten's. This time they won."

The Sperry's lived in Stockton for three years and Brooks introduced Austin to the open waters at that time with the Stockton Sailing Club while also spending summers at the St. Francis Yacht Club

"He started sailing at five-years old. We used to go out on the Delta," Brooks said. "After high school he started sailing with Mark Reynolds, a three-time Olympic medalist."

In 1982, the family moved out to the East Coast where Austin went to high school at Avon Old Farms all-boys school in Connecticut before traveling cross country again to play lacrosse at Whittier College in Southern California. He then moved to San Francisco to focus on sailing full time and currently resides in Gulfport, Miss.

Brooks, meanwhile, made his way back to Lodi to take over the house his mother left when she passed away.

"My mother lived in Lodi and was a school teacher in the '60s, '70s and '80s," Brooks said. "I've lived here the last ten years."

John Dane, right, and Austin Sperry, of Gulfport, Miss., head back into the Gulfport Harbor on Wednesday, May 28, 2008, in Biloxi, Miss., after a practice run in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. The two will represent the US in the Star class sailing competition. (Associated Press file photo)

Fate brought Austin, 30, and Dane together in 2004 when Dane's daughter Sally caught the attention of Austin's gazing eye.

Soon after, Austin and Dane were training for an Olympic berth four years down the road.

"It was crazy. It was unbelievable," Brooks said of his son's Olympic berth. "His father-in-law is the poster child of AARP. He's from New Orleans and he's been a good sailor all his life. There's a great story there. He and Austin hooked up and beat out the young guns."

Dane is the oldest U.S. team member in any sport at 58 years old and the oldest sailor competing by nearly 17 years. He was part of a team that took second place in the 1968 US Olympic Trials.

Austin, is currently unavailable for comment because he's training in the coastal city of Qingdao, China, some 430 miles to the east of Beijing, where the Olympic regatta will take place.

He will return to San Francisco on July 23 to get his credentials and paperwork for the Olympics before heading back to Qingdao on Aug. 1. The regatta starts on Aug. 9 and runs through Aug. 24.