Being considered a sports super fan can bring fame, prestige and a place in fandom history for your collegiate or professional team.
Jiovanni Fernandez didn’t do it for any of those reasons. “I didn’t care if I got paid, I just wanted to do it because I enjoyed it [and I] had nothing else to do on a Saturday night,” the junior nursing student said. “I just love screaming and getting people riled up.”
Fernandez attended his first game at Long Beach State one week into the school year: a women’s volleyball match against Indiana.
“I remember that day they were giving white sunglasses and I was sitting on the corner and there’s a group of guys in the middle of the student section just cheering loud and going crazy [and] I was like, ‘I want to get on TV’ so I said I want to do something crazy,” Fernandez said, “I asked everyone who didn’t want their sunglasses and put on as many as I can, I think I had on around 18-20 glasses on top of me, I basically looked like Iron Man.”
Fernandez was featured on TV and a group of guys from The Sandpit, Cal State Long Beach’s roaring student section, asked him to join. From that moment on, the caricature as the Long Beach State superfan began to grow.
The experience reminded Fernandez of his high school days, when he was a sports medic staffer and would find himself cheering teams on from the sidelines. Those dueling passions have followed him to college and the start of his professional career.
One experience Fernandez remembers fondly was the 2023 men’s basketball season when LBSU made it to the NCAA tournament in Utah, which he was lucky enough to attend and cheer in person.
“Originally I wasn’t supposed to go, but one of their partners wasn’t able to make it so Nick [Toral] was the one who came up to me and said, ‘Hey, totally last minute. You have five minutes to answer but they’re trying to get a ticket and everything, would you be down to go to Utah?’”
Want more local news?
Sign up for the Signal Tribune’s daily newsletter
Fernandez was studying for an exam at the library and after asking his mom, he got his bags packed to go.
“We’re going to the stairs with the cheer group as well and we met four people and they said, ‘You’re the guy on the TV! You’re the one who is making all the chants with the white bucket hat,’” he said.
When he began attending Cal State Long Beach in 2023, he wasn’t an outgoing person, but he still wanted to do something memorable.
“It’s one of the main reasons I do it — to get more memories,” Fernandez said. “In the future I could talk about it more [and say] I was just this one guy screaming in a shark costume.”
Recently, Fernandez traded in his shark costume for a Falck EMT uniform and nights at the Pyramid for overnight shifts as a 911 EMT.
He missed only two home games during the 2023-2024 season. While fans may not be able to see him at every Long Beach State game nowadays, he still makes time to attend one or two games per month due to his new journey in EMT work.
Fernandez started his journey with Falck Ambulance in Orange Country doing two weeks over the summer in 2025 and received the full time position soon after.
He started out working 24-hour shifts two days a week where he’d be on call. The shift begins at 6 a.m. at his station and is prepared to take any calls at any time. Since you never know when you’ll get a call, they waive all breaks and mealtimes during the 24-hour shifts.
Fernandez now exclusively does 10 hour shifts five days a week in Laguna Hills, which he says are the most common shifts.
While he might not go to every home game at the Pyramid, Fernandez still keeps up with the team, watching the games on ESPN+ when there’s downtime and no calls coming in.
It’s one of the ways he relaxes at his job, since he comes across all types of patients and situations in his line of work.
“There’s a lot of things EMT’s go through that people don’t see,” Fernandez said. “We deal with violent patients, sometimes patients are drunk and we need to take them to the hospital, we deal with patients who are combative in the ambulance.”
Being an EMT is tough, as Fernandez described instances being overworked, underpaid or exhausted. Even with those stressors, he considers himself lucky to be where he’s at.
“If I’m having a bad day, someone else is having a worse day. I could be there and be super tired, exhausted, stressed out but if you get a call and someone is in worse shape than you are, then why are you complaining?” Fernandez said.
He said having a good support system, having hobbies like fishing and using company resources like therapy help him handle his days in stride.
Since Fernandez would often lose his voice cheering and screaming during games, he said he can’t go as often now, as he wouldn’t be able to speak to his patients.
“I really miss going and losing my voice,” he said.
On Nov. 7, Fernandez announced on social media yet another milestone in his career, as he was accepted into a nursing program. Once he gets his bearings, he envisions returning to reclaim his title as a Long Beach State super fan.
“I’ll damn right be there in the stands and be there chanting again,” Fernandez said. “You’ll just have to give me some time to get back, but once I’m solidified and good to go in nursing school, I’ll be there for the Beach or any team that’s in the ‘Mid.”
