Speech of a lifetime

Mt. Pleasant High School senior and state-bound speech performer Owen Prough finishes his homework and starts his workout. He lifts weights, works on muscle strength and stretches - much the way a high school quarterback works out.

Unlike the quarterback, Prough has spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy and is wheelchair-bound.

On Saturday, he will be competing after qualifying for the Iowa state high school speech competition.

In his speech, he'll tell the judges the challenges he's faced in life and how he is learning to overcome them.

And he has had challenges, lots of them.

Prough has strong faith, seeing many of his challenges as messages from God.

Like last fall when the wheelchair lift broke. That equipment is essential to get him in and out of his Mt. Pleasant home.

Prough and his parents took it 'as a sign from God,” and moved to Dallas, Texas, to escape the cold winter and to get Owen closer to his brother-in-law who is a physical therapist.

'I think my lift breaking in October showed me that I needed to start taking [physical therapy] seriously, and this is a sign that we can go [to Dallas] and get things worked out,” Prough said.

Prough has been attending his Mt. Pleasant High classes this school year virtually due to safety concerns and transportation issues.

Dallas has been a good move for Prough, who has gained strength and now is able to move himself in and out of his bed from his wheelchair.

That might not seem like a big deal, but it is.

'That's huge for me. To be able to put myself in bed,” Prough said. 'For 15 years (my older brother) or my dad would lift me and put me in bed. But this is me deciding at 8:30 that I'm tired and putting myself in bed. It's huge and a big source of pride for me.”

A Breakthrough

Those past 15 years Prough has struggled with confidence, motivation and the physical limitations that come with his disease.

There were multiple surgeries, each one setting him back in his physical therapy progress.

Moving to Dallas brought a huge breakthrough for Prough.

He realized he could never be the high school quarterback; he could never be in show choir; his life wasn't going to be normal. He realized that he was doing so much more than every other kid, that his struggle to do things other kids do naturally was what made him different.

It also made him stronger than others.

'It feels so good to finally be taking a step forward because I spent 15 years on the same thing, and I didn't realize how seriously I should be taking it,” he said, 'These are challenges that other kids wouldn't have to face. It took a while for it to click in my brain that this is something that is huge for me, that no one else will have to deal with.”

Prough faces daily challenges in regards to his mobility and independence that a high school quarterback does not begin to think about. From being able to get in and out of bed, to transportation, to feeding himself, Prough has had to overcome many difficulties and challenges that come with his condition.

He has persevered past those challenges to be able to work on himself and improve himself so that he can have a semi-normal life.

'I can't be a part of show choir and those things because of my disability, but as my mom reminds me, high school is not where it's at. Your high school friends will dissipate, and your high school activities will dissipate,” he said.

'So I started to focus on what I can do that other kids don't have to do, to make sure that I can have a job when I'm older, to have a car and that I'm making income,” he said.

Speech Team

While overcoming his obstacles to daily life and persevering in the face of adversity, Prough has found activities that are easily adapted to his disability and that he enjoys participating in.

One of those was the Mt. Pleasant speech team.

Coach Jessi Rich made Prough feel like part of the team and accommodated Prough without him having to ask for it. This showed Prough that he found something that he could do.

He found his activity.

'It's great because it's an activity that doesn't require me to worry about being wheelchair-bound or accessibility. Whatever the circumstances are, Mrs. Rich has made sure that I would be a part of it,” Prough said.

Rich has worked with Owen, his teaching assistant and his parents to make sure that Prough not only feels like part of the team but is able to access and perform at all of his speech events.

'It was really important to me that we were able to bring Owen along to competitions, and so I requested the handicap vehicles for the competition,” Rich said. 'That was really important because I wanted to make Owen feel like he was a part of the team, and that he didn't have to ride with his family because of the handicap accessibility.”

His teammates helped. When they would arrive at a school for competition, everyone would scout the facility to find the ramps and elevators so Prough could navigate to the rooms where the contest was held.

‘Challenging Topic'

Speech gives Prough the opportunity to explore topics that interest him in a medium he loves to perform.

'I also just love speech, I look forward to it every year as a chance for me to take on different topics and explore different things and different aspects of my life or American life through a speech or a movie or a radio broadcast,” Prough said.

This is Prough's third year in speech. He decided to compete in the original oratory category with a speech entitled 'Life In Phases” about his life and overcoming his disability. In the speech, he talks about how he overcame his disability, and how he has coped with the differences between his life and the high school quarterback's life.

'I look at our high school football quarterback and think, ‘He's going to love remembering the fact that he played high school football,' but a lot of the speech is remembering that he didn't have to deal with how he's going to put himself in bed when he gets home,” Prough said.

'I am focusing on what it takes for me to live by myself and have my own kids and have my own life. It's a lot that other kids don't have to live with,” he added.

Rich said it was a challenging topic.

'It really was a test of his confidence to be able to talk about himself rather than some random news, or a movie,” she said. ' It was actually a challenge to him but also something that was really good for him to do.

Prough got a '1” rating at the district speech competition in February and will be participating in the state competition this Saturday, virtually from his hotel room in Dallas, Texas.

Along with his interest in speech, Prough's biggest supporters are the big family that helps him not only with his physical functions but supports him in his dreams and endeavors.

'They're great, especially my parents. The older I get I appreciate the fact that they are doing things that you don't even realize,” Prough said. 'They give up a huge chunk of their lives to make sure I have what I need, and I know that's parenting but it's a lot harder than it looks. I can imagine that it's pretty tough on the other side to make sure that I have what I need, and have to care for me.”