Carlos played basketball and tennis as a young man and after high school went on to study at the University of Texas, El Paso. During his sophomore year Carlos and friends traveled to Austin for a college football game. On the way home as Carlos slept in the back, the driver fell asleep at the wheel, drove off the road and when he awoke and tried to correct the car flipped over ejecting Carlos through the back window and into a tree resulting in a spinal cord injury at the T6-7 level and paralysis. Three months in the hospital followed by rehabilitation forced Carlos to miss a semester of school however while in Houston he was introduced to wheelchair basketball. He completed a bachelors degree in Interdisciplinary Studies on Education in the Spring of 2013. Carlos tried out for and made the wheelchair basketball team at the University of Arizona where he is studying for a masters degree in rehabilitation counseling.