FAYETTEVILLE — The ratio of DeSpains to the rest of the student body at Navy just went up a little.
On Wednesday in front of a gathering of family and classmates, Haas Hall-Fayetteville’s Lily DeSpain became the third sibling to sign a national letter of intent to swim at the U.S. Naval Academy, joining older sisters Jade and Corrine in Annapolis, Md.
Lily DeSpain, an all-state swimmer and a member of the 2018 state championship team at Haas Hall, will graduate a year early from Haas Hall and enroll at Navy in the summer of 2020.
Ironically when Corrine DeSpain signed her letter of intent two years ago, Lily got extremely emotional when the reality of her sister leaving home hit her. On Wednesday it was the complete opposite as Lily will have her older siblings with her at Navy.
“I’m just extremely happy today knowing that I will be joining my sisters there,” Lily said. “This is just the ultimate joy.”
In order to make the DeSpain trifecta happen, Lily went full steam ahead to graduate from Haas Hall a year early, no small feat in itself said Haas Hall athletic director Rebecca Moll.
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“I thought I would have her for another year,” Moll laughed. “I’m not sure if getting to Navy to be with both of her sisters was a part of her decision to graduate early, but the opportunity arose for her to do it and she did it.”
Having three sisters at the Naval Academy could be unprecedented, but neither DeSpain nor Moll knew that for sure. They did some research on it and found there were three brothers there at one time.
DeSpain said she will complete the spring semester at Haas Hall then enroll at Navy in the summer for the 2020 fall semester. She also considered the other military academies, but the chance to reunite with her sisters was a deciding factor.
“In my heart, I knew that Navy was for me,” she said. “My sisters are role models for me and they have accomplished a lot. I hope to accomplish as much as they have.”
Neither Jade nor Corrine swim at Navy any longer, but Lily is intent on joining the swim program, she said. DeSpain swims the IM and the 100 breast stroke, where she was a state champion last winter and was the 2018 Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Newcomer of the Year.
DeSpain becomes the seventh Haas Hall scholar-athlete to sign with a military academy, Moll said.
“These are the type of scholar-athlete we are looking for here,” Moll said. “The military academies require a high academic standing and ACT score, but they also have the physical component as well.”