Brothers lead UTPB men's soccer

At some point this season, senior UTBP outside midfielder Carlos Guillen will get the soccer ball, see two or three teammates streaking down the field and one of those teammates will be his brother, freshman forward Ulises.

He will probably look for Ulises first, and perhaps pass him the ball and expect him to take advantage of his quickness.

The look from Carlos to Ulises first, though, wasn't always the case. Not before this season.

From the backyard to youth league games to Odessa High School, Carlos mostly saw Ulises (pronounced You-lease) as just his little brother on the field and not much else.

Separated by three years (Carlos is 21 and Ulises is 18), Carlos was always more advanced and played with better teammates, and that partly caused the problem.

"Back then, which was my mistake, I didn't put a lot of trust in him because he was younger than all the other kids," Carlos said.

They didn't play much in the backyard and deliberately tried to be opposite (they love rival Mexican league teams, Carlos' loyalty to Chivas and Ulises' with America).

And when Carlos would see Ulises open on the field, he preferred to pass to an older, more experience teammate.

Now, as the Falcons' season begins at 2 p.m. today against Hawaii Pacific, Carlos sees Ulises differently. He realizes his kid brother can hang.

"I feel comfortable with him there, not like back at OHS," Carlos said. "I didn't trust him, but now there's a different thing going on. I trust him. I put everything on him. I know he'll get the job done."

A summer of talking with their father and head coach Dennis Peterson about their relationship helped. Peterson said despite a team policy of not getting on each other for mistakes, he's more likely to give the Guillens a longer leash.

That, the brothers said, might've done the trick.

"We worked everything out now," Carlos said. "We don't have problems anymore. We used to scream at each other, like, getting mad at each other, but now it's not like that. It's more constructive criticism, and we both take it in a good way."

Even when Ulises decided to enroll at UTPB after initially favoring Eastern New Mexico, having his brother in Odessa wasn't the biggest factor (attending UTPB was more affordable, Ulises said). In fact, it was barely a factor at all.

"I thought that he wasn't going to trust me," Ulises said.
In hindsight, Ulises said choosing the Falcons was the right decision.

He'll likely be in the starting rotation - one of five freshmen starters - and he's had a summer to get used to playing with Carlos.

On the field, Carlos still employs tough love. Although one of the top players on the team, he's not necessarily the most outspoken one or the vocal leader. When it comes to Ulisesm, though, Carlos won't sugarcoat it. He'll be in his face if he needs to.

"I want him to be better than me, than anybody," Carlos said. "So I put a little more pressure on him than anyone else just because he's my brother. It's a family thing. The big brother role comes in."

The other Falcons have noticed this dynamic, and senior goalkeeper Gage Peterson said having brothers on the team will be beneficial. Especially when they're on the same page, as they appear to be.

"Once one of them gets the ball, the first thing he looks for is his brother, it seems like," Peterson said. "They know where each other's at. They know each other better than anyone else on the field."