Danish exchange student presents the colors for Central High School

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - Cheyenne Central High School hosted the Laramie Plainsmen in one of the last weeks of regular season basketball. While students and family came out to support the players, they also happened to be in the gym for a much more unique experience.

“It was beating so fast, my heart. I was really nervous and that also led to a mistake on the first time, but second time went well so I’m happy about that,” said Hjalte Bergoe.

Hjalte, who’s friends call him Yaya, presented the colors with Central’s JROTC. Now, this may not seem very uncommon at all, until you know a little bit more about Yaya. He’s an exchange student from Denmark. When he was picking his classes for the upcoming school year, he wasn’t too sure what ROTC even was.

“The counselor, I think it was, was like ‘what about ROTC?’ and I was like ‘what is that?’ and she was like ‘it’s like a military class, and if you take it, you don’t have to take P.E.’ I’ve heard bad stuff about the P.E. over here, so I was like ‘ok, yea, let’s do that.’”

Once Yaya got involved in the program, he was told that he’d be presenting the colors at some point during the year. This gave him the opportunity to participate in a national tradition for a country he says holds a special place in his heart.

“America has always been like there for me because my family love coming to vacation here. This is my seventh time here, vacation six times, so I’ve been here a lot. It was great, it was fantastic.”

Yaya will go back home to Denmark in June, and will leave the states with an experience he won’t soon forget.

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