João Paulo Guimarães was born in São Jose dos Campos, Brazil, first of four brothers who all love to play soccer.  He grew up playing 2v2 with his ready made team on the streets, winning games with all the neighborhood kids.  One of his fondest memories is winning the local tournament at the age of twelve, with his brothers filling out the team.

João Paulo was known as 'JotaP', pronounced, "Joe - tah - pay", and the whole neighborhood frequently heard 'JotaP' after "GGGGoooooooooooLLLLLLLLLL"!

Not only was João Paulo a natural athlete, playing basketball, volleyball, and always futebol (soccer) as the favorite, he had an academic mind and majored in electical engineering at UNIVAP in São Jose dos Campos.  He never stopped playing soccer, even with all of his studies, and was on the field or futsal quadra (court) every night for years.

His passion for the sport drove him to become a coach for young players, to share his knowledge and experience with all the kids coming up who wanted to learn to be a good player.  His specialty was teaching game vision, especially from the midfield perspective, as well as footskills.  He has the intuitive understanding of the Brazilian style.

João Paulo is in the United States now to learn basketball, English, and teach soccer.  His favorite basketball team is the Pistons, of course, but he likes to watch the Brazilian basketball players on Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets.  His favorite soccer team is the Tri-Color Paulista (São Paulo).

João Paulo's favorite soccer memory is of the '94 World Cup victory, fourth star for Brazil, played in the United States at the Orange Bowl.  Everyone went to the streets and celebrated for days!

copyright (c) 2006