A self-proclaimed “country girl,” Alex “Yee-haw” Grubbs, 18, is a first-year Liberal Arts major and a Cincinnati native, who now calls the country roads of Camden her home.
Grubbs lived in Monroe for most of her life, but currently resides on 20-acre ranch with her mother and stepfather. She is a 2012 graduate of Preble Shawnee High School— also maintaining an emphasis in Psychology at Sinclair— chosen because of her interest in the human condition.
“I wanted to talk to people and help them with their problems. Everyone always came to me for advice in high school and I didn’t mind, so I thought maybe I could help more people and make it a profession,” Grubbs said.
But well before Grubbs was thinking about her preferred major in college, she was living a fast-paced, dirt-filled and gas-charged life as a competition dirt bike racer. Starting at the age of 11, Grubbs was given her first dirt bike, a Yamaha TTR 125, as a birthday present from her stepfather.
From there, Grubbs would enter a variety of different races, often against all boys.
As a racer, Grubbs prefers courses that allow her to navigate through trails and mud, like the GNCC event she once competed in.
“It’s like nature, not an actual track,” Grubbs said. “Those are my favorite. I wish I could do those more.”
Grubbs said when she turned 16, she upgraded to a bigger, faster and more expensive Honda 250 CR dirt bike, which was necessary for her to keep up with her competitors.
But despite her ambition, her dirt bike career would be derailed in 2010 when she was in a car accident that almost took her life.
“I almost died. Another two feet and I would have been crushed,” Grubbs said.
Besides a cut to her eye, the then 16-year-old Grubbs came away from the wreck physically unscathed, but would be forced to make a decision— sell her valuable Honda 250 CR, or have no car.
Grubbs would ultimately decide to part ways with her dirt bike. And after that, she never entered another race.
But even with the abrupt ending to her career, Grubbs cherishes the time she spent competing in races and credits her accomplished racing journey to her stepfather, a former professional BMX rider.
“I wouldn’t know what a dirt bike was if it wasn’t for him,” she said.
Along with her passion for dirt bikes, Grubbs also enjoys riding her two four wheelers, snowboarding and firing a collection of shotguns and rifles at her ranch’s shooting range.
Grubbs doesn’t see herself as unfortunate. She came away with her life, and as she says, has “plenty of other ways to unleash the country in me.”