Megan Kovac didn’t listen when doctors told her she would never walk again.

The 19-year-old Kovac, a Denton High graduate who was a standout soccer player for the Lady Broncos, fractured part of her spinal cord in a horseback riding accident in February, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.

"They [doctors] told me that I had only a zero- to five-percent chance of regaining any type of recovery," Kovac said. "I have a pretty defiant side of me, so I was scared but at the same time I was like 'Well I'm going to show you.' I was determined to prove the doctors wrong."

Kovac did not like the idea of simply giving up, and she wanted a chance for a full recovery. She discovered a place in San Antonio called Pressing On, a training facility that offers exercise-based rehab.

Traditional physical therapy for spinal cord injury (SCI) patients focuses on developing upper-body strength to ease the process of transferring in and out of a wheel chair. This recovery process teaches patients to adapt to life in a wheel chair.

Pressing On offers a different, non-traditional approach that aims at recovery instead of adaptation.

"Their [Pressing On] whole outlook on it is that recovery is possible, so they do intense exercises throughout my whole body," Kovac said.

Kovac has made significant improvements since that fearful day in February when she and a friend were out riding horses in Ponder. Kovac's horse spooked and threw her to the ground. She suffered a fracture at the 12th thoracic vertebrae in her spinal cord, along with a concussion.

Paramedics took Kovac via CareFlight to Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth.

"I was pretty freaked out," she said. "I remember demanding second opinions when they told me I had a spinal cord injury."

Kovac remained at Harris Methodist for 10 days, and then she transferred to Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation in Dallas for inpatient rehab for four weeks.

Prior to the accident, Kovac was a single mother planning to attend college to study Christian counseling.

In high school, she was the star goalkeeper on the girls soccer team and a four-year varsity athlete at Denton. She had a scholarship offer from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Kovac declined the scholarship offer upon learning she was pregnant midway through her senior year. She gave birth to her daughter, Miracle, in early August.

While her daughter and the rest of her family stayed in Denton, Kovac left for San Antonio to pursue her rehab and recovery process at Pressing On.

The aggressive nature Kovac developed as a soccer player and competitive horseback rider fueled her willpower to recover from the injury.

"She is very determined," said Nito Blochlinger, the head SCI-recovery specialist at Pressing On and Kovac's trainer. "She works very hard and she does everything we ask of her."

Kovac attends a two-hour rehab session four days a week with Blochlinger, who has worked at Pressing On since it opened in October 2007.

"We take her through various exercise techniques geared toward helping her walking again," Blochlinger said.

The exercise-based rehab focuses on improving movement and sensation to activate the muscles and nerves below the injury level.

"Basically, Pressing On pushes you to your limits," Kovac said. "They push you until you can not go anymore, and they focus on your whole body."

Kovac has shown remarkable signs of recovery since joining Pressing On after her release from the hospital in late March. She can now come up from a sitting position to a standing position, and she is able to perform various exercises unassisted, including leg presses and riding a spin bike. With assistance, Kovac can walk while holding on to the parallel bars. 

Although a full recovery is not certain and could take years for Kovac, the young, cheerful teenager is determined to get back to the normal condition she enjoyed just three months ago.

The resolve and dedication Kovac possesses is something she attributes to her experience as a competitive athlete.

"Being athletic and playing sports definitely has a lot to do with it," Kovac said of her determination to overcome paralysis.

Kovac has competed in equestrian events for more than 10 years as a show jumper and show hunter. As she starts to recover from her injuries, Kovac hopes to get back on a saddle soon. Eventually, she wants to compete in the Paralympics in the equestrian sport of dressage.

"I have been pretty anxious to get back into it," Kovac said. "I just can't get the doctors to clear me yet."

Kovac will finish her rehab program at Pressing On in August and wants to come back home and attend North Texas to major in kinesiology.

"I want to be able to help other people with spinal cord injuries do the type of program that I am doing," she said. "I want to offer them the hope that I was offered by coming down here [to San Antonio]."

When she finishes her program at Pressing On, Kovac will try to raise money for a personal trainer to come to Denton and perform a similar exercise-based rehab.

With all the physical and mental distress Kovac has endured, she does not want people to sympathize with her situation.

In fact, Kovac said she believes people faced with any obstacle in life should see no limits.

"I definitely don’t want people to feel sorry for me at all," she said. "I hope they see that anything is possible, no matter what they're told. There are people out there with spinal cord injuries, people whose parents told them they couldn’t do something and people with other types of injuries, and they keep pressing on.

"There are no limits – you can reach as high as you want."