Beach volleyball players have all sorts of relationships with their partners. While some end up becoming best friends due to the extended coexistence, others elect not to spend much of their time together when they’re not on a volleyball court.
For Brazilians Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes and Arthur Mariano, there wasn’t much choice.
Since the two joined forces last September, the 23-year-old Arthur left Maringa, where he used to live, and moved to Rio de Janeiro. In order for him to settle in the new city, Guto and his girlfriend and team coach Jessica Mesquita opened the doors of their home, and Arthur has lived with them since.
The unusual situation of having two partners and a coach living under the same roof is not unprecedented in beach volleyball, but it’s certainly not usual either. Guto himself lived through a similar situation in the early days of his career when he partnered with his older brother Marcus and the team were coached by their father, Marcelo ‘Big’ Carvalhaes.
“We quickly realised this was the only way to have Arthur living in Rio full-time and saw it as an investment in our team,” said the 27-year-old Guto, who was named the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour’s Top Rookie in 2016. “And it’s been working great so far because all three of us get along really well and help each other in our daily routines. We’ve developed a genuine friendship. It’s very different from when I played with my brother, we’re more professional now and have clearer goals, but I certainly still carry several of the lessons I learned from my father.”
Another unusual scenario lived out by the team is the girlfriend-boyfriend, coach-player relationship between Jessica and Guto. While it’s relatively common to see men coaching their wives or girlfriends in international volleyball, the same cannot be said about the inverse scenario.
Jessica has been part of Guto’s coaching staff for the last six years, but only when he partnered with Arthur did the two decide it was time for her to move to a more central position instead of working under another head coach.
“I see having a woman as my coach very naturally,” Guto added. “I’ve been coached by Leticia (Pessoa) before and she’s one of the best in the world. Jessica might be new as a head coach but she’s been involved with high-level beach volleyball for a long time. She’s been helping my teams in training and scouting our matches and our opponents for years, so she has developed a great eye for the sport, is very detail-oriented and dedicated. She was actually the one who first spotted Arthur and thought that we could be good together. She worked really hard for this opportunity and, as her boyfriend, it’s been amazing to be on this journey with her and to see her growth every single day.”
Jessica is by no means the only member of the team to be growing in her role. Considered for years as one of the most exciting, up-and-coming young talents in Brazil, Guto now sees himself as the most experienced player of his team for the first time in his career.
While the defender has appeared in 50 World Tour events over the last seven years, Arthur has played internationally just once in his career, finishing fifth at a one-star event in Miguel Pereira in 2019.
The position might be new for Guto, but he’s enjoying it. After playing with the likes of Ricardo Santos, Pedro Solberg, Saymon Barbosa and Vitor Felipe over the last few years, he feels ready to apply his leadership ideas to the team.
“I’ve always had sort of a leader profile, so that’s something I’m comfortable with,” he said. “And each of the partners I had in the past has taught me something in that area. When I look at myself now, I see the influence of each of them but the one that taught me the most was certainly Ricardo.”
Guto credits most of his growth as a leader to the five World Tour events he played with Ricardo in 2018Guto and Arthur are still in the early days of their partnership, but they recently got to celebrate their first title together as the team won the seventh stop on the Brazilian Circuit at the end of February.
The team made it to the semifinals in five of the first seven events on the 2020-2021 season and appeared in the gold medal match in three of them.
"To reward our hard work with a gold medal was amazing," Guto commented. "We felt we were so close in a couple of tournaments before, and that only motivated us to work even harder. We're very happy about what we accomplished in such a short period of time and there's no lack of motivation for us to push our team further."
The two had a little break from each other recently when Guto played with 2017 world champion Evandro Goncalves and the team advanced all the way to the final of the World Tour 4-star Katara Cup Cup in Doha, Qatar.
Guto and Arthur will be partners again later this month as they are entered to compete in the three four-star tournaments that will be played between April 16 and May 2 in Cancun, Mexico.
Main Photo: Ana Patricia/Inovafoto/CBV
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