Billy Brocato, the Cerritos College Falcons baseball team’s superfan, may have been the key behind the Birds’ series victory over the first place El Camino College Warriors last week and is undeniably the key for all of us to win in life.

You would never know the 66-year-old Brocato, or “Bill the superfan”, is currently battling stage four cancer.

The Cerritos superfan stood on his feet all nine innings of the game April 10 on an unusually warm spring day, cheering on the Falcons, taunting opposing players, and reacting to the umpires’ calls and every moment of the game.

“I forget about my cancer when I’m here,” Brocato said. “I just love to watch these guys succeed and win and play. The smile on their faces gives me a smile.”

His energy not only resonated with the players, who spent time taunting Brocato’s “arch-nemesis” and encouraging their superfan, it exuded into the stands where family members and significant others of the Birds’ players shared in his enthusiasm, laughed and cheered along with him.

“Bill the superfan” surprisingly began his fandom in 2017 when Cerritos head coach Nate Fernley was at the helm of El Camino’s baseball team where he had 16 successful seasons.

“He is dedicated to peace. he just loves being around the environment, loves being around the players, he’s passionate about that,” the head coach said.

Fernley noted Brocato’s dedication and fanaticism and said, “When we were at El Camino, I went to a couple of Final Fours. He would drive up to those games and he would take pictures and print them out, give them to the guys and he just cares a lot about this. This means a lot to him.”

The enemy in question is “Dan the man, the superfan”, Daniel Pelaez, who follows El Camino College around and has taken over since Brocato joined the Birds fandom.

To put into perspective the passion and personality the two bring to the baseball field, they sat on opposite ends of the stands before the game and engaged in a staring contest and both never let up for the duration of the game.

Pelaez noted the switch Brocato made as they both shared a laugh and said, “I don’t got to worry about looking at him man. He knows I cheer louder than him and longer than him. He knows that.”

Brocato shared how he started his relationships and fandom and said, “I was up at the upper deck and I was just watching the team play. [Trevor Casanova] hit a home run, I went and got it and nobody ever did that. I brought it back to him. That’s when it started. I was taking pictures of all the home run hitters and it just started from there. I met all the players. I always encourage them to go to school, get a degree. [Fernley] trusted me with the team.”

Pelaez has enjoyed taking the reins at El Camino and was excited about getting to cheer opposite of Brocato.

Brocato followed Fernley over in 2024 when he took over the head position for the Falcons.

Brocato unfortunately learned about his diagnosis of his liver and colon in early 2024 and could not support the baseball team like he wished he could.

“When he got sick and he wasn’t here last year, we missed him,” Fernley said.

Taking the time he needed to focus on his cancer and get healthy, the superfan was eager to watch baseball again and made the trip to El Camino to support the Falcons.

Cerritos took game two on the road and they were headed back to Kincaid Field for a rubber match that proved to be a tense, competitive and entertaining matchup between the two established ballclubs and Brocato was right in the middle of it all.

At Cerritos, Brocato took his post on the first base side near the Falcons’ dugout and rallied the Birds to a 7-4 victory and a series win over his old Warriors team.

Fernley added, “It was good to see him healthy enough to be out here and cheer us on that’s for sure. He was there Thursday and that was the first time I’d seen him in a while. It was really good to see and we got a big win and he said ‘I’m not going to miss the next one.’ This week he was a good luck charm.”

For the superfan, it’s more than just baseball. He enjoys and loves the realness with which athletes at the collegiate level approach their sports and is grateful for the opportunity Fernley has given him to be a part of something that helps lift him up and he pays it forward.

Brocato said, “I enjoy that more than anything, trust me. So, I will never let him down.”

“I love it because the players will respect you as a fan. The pros, they’re more in their old ways. These guys like to learn, they like to listen. I love that about them,” he added about his love for collegiate baseball. “They’re happy, you see the sadness, you see everything about them. It’s so neat. They’re real.”

It’s all an escape for Brocato. Getting to live vicariously through the ballplayers and be a part of the team in his own way gives him a reason to keep pushing forward in his own life.

The Cerritos superfan has an infusion scheduled for April 13 but is still dedicated to making it out to the next game and pushing through and not letting the cancer win.

Brocato brings a positivity each and every day that has kept him in good spirits and hopes he gave everyone around him that day more than a ballgame to watch. He hopes that people also learn from his own situation and continue to strive no matter where they may find themselves.

As he continues to fight and try to make the most of his opportunities, words from the superfan were inspiring, “I’m battling right now. The cancer cells are dying, but at stage four, the doctor gave me two to four years to live, but I told him, ‘only God knows the answer to that. God brought me here. He’ll take me home.’ So, I’m not worried about that anymore.”

This story was originally published on Cerritos College on April 13, 2026.