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Given all the national attention being heaped on Nate Bittle these days, it can be hard to remember that he’s also just a 15-year-old sophomore at Crater High School. He still has a heavy workload in the classroom, and is still a ways away from graduation. In reality, the biggest thing on his plate these days is making it through his driver’s education program, which can be tedious at times and somewhat uncomfortable when you consider a lanky 6-foot-10 frame trying to fit into a Chevy sedan. “My knees are bent like to my nose almost,” says Bittle. While Bittle may be a sight to behold behind the steering wheel, it’s nothing like the picture he’s been painting over the past few months that has him as one of the most sought-after basketball players in the country for the Class of 2021. Through his work with the West Coast Elite program this summer as well as individual efforts with Crater, Bittle finds himself as a five-star recruit that is ranked No. 12 among his class by Rivals and 20th overall in ESPN’s high school rankings. The sophomore standout boasts a rare combination of 3-point shooting ability with shot-blocking skills in the paint to go with uncanny ballhandling and passing for a player of his size. With that has come scholarship offers already from most teams in the Pac-12 Conference, including both in-state programs as well as the likes of Arizona, UCLA, USC and California. He also holds offers from Portland and Tulane, with growing interest from Gonzaga and a host of others. “I don’t have anything to compare it to,” says Crater head coach Chris Schmerbach. “I’ve never had a player with this much attention and hype and exposure. But to me, it seems like he’s handling everything great. He’s not letting any of the pressure or buildup or any of that stuff affect him on his goals and what he wants to do moving forward.” Most recently, Bittle found himself traveling to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as one of 12 invitees from the Class of 2021 to the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team mini-camp two weeks ago. In all, there were 88 invitations to the top American prospects from the classes of 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. “I’ve always dreamed about being able to play at the college level,” says Bittle, “but I didn’t think about if I would be good enough to play on the USA team or be invited to their mini-camp, so when that happened I just froze and didn’t know what to say.” The simple answer was “yes,” and Bittle wound up making quite a few lists of players who stood out during the three-day process two weeks ago. “I kind of just found myself fitting in well right there with everyone,” he says. “There were only 11 or 12 2021 kids and I knew most of them by being in the rankings and at camps with them so I was pretty comfortable.” “I felt good about what I did,” adds Bittle, who has added 10 pounds of muscle to weigh in at 185. “They said that they didn’t want ball hogs so I just went out there and I was a team player like usual and just tried to help with my shooting and defense and finishing at the rim.” With so much day-to-day scrutiny, from measurements to film sessions and being put through the paces via drills or scrimmages, Bittle says he never found himself caught up in anything other than just trying to learn and develop his game and being thankful for the opportunity. “Each day I was just thanking God for getting me to the spot where I am today,” he says. That spot now means he’s on the radar of not only the top West Coast programs, but his name will continue to be bandied about among the elite programs nationwide. “You get a kid like this once in a lifetime, for sure, and you just have to make sure you’re doing yourself justice as a coach and making sure he’s put in the right situations so he can be his best,” says Schmerbach, whose Comets open tryouts and practice on Nov. 12. “We’re just trying to help him navigate that and do what’s best for Nate in the right way.” With that has come some more structured visits with college coaches and their programs, including a recent stretch that saw Oregon, Gonzaga, Oregon State and Arizona all stop by Central Point in different days to get another first-hand look at Bittle through two-man drill sessions and then open gym opportunities that followed at Crater High. “It can become tricky sometimes to navigate things,” says Schmerbach, who has Stanford coming to town Wednesday. “We had Arizona, Oregon State and Oregon like three days in a row. You want to make sure he’s got those opportunities but you’ve always got to look out for him, too, and make sure he’s keeping everything in balance. His academics are a real big piece of the puzzle with all of this.” Schmerbach has served as a “middle man” between the Division I programs and Bittle, who has also been steadily guided by his parents Ryan and Susanne. “I think his family and parents and circle around him are doing a good job of making sure he’s keeping all this in the right perspective,” says Schmerbach. “I’m a lot busier than definitely I’ve ever been in that respect but I feel like it’s a pretty important part of my job to make sure Nate has the ability to communicate with them when they’re asking for things, and communicating in the right way so we’re not having him bombarded too much and making sure we’re following all the rules.” For his part, Bittle isn’t exactly crazy about all the extra attention he’s getting but he has enjoyed meeting with all the coaches and players in their programs — he’s been on campus at Oregon, UCLA and USC so far — and was elated to work out and spend time with all the top talents brought together by USA Basketball. “I guess I’m handling it pretty good, I don’t let all that get to me,” says Bittle of outside pressure. “My parents and coach always stress that I stay humble and stay hungry, so that’s usually what I try to do. My parents do a lot of dealing with coaches and I just kind of stay back. I do my workouts and stay back until the coaches want to talk to me.” Schmerbach says he’s had no worries about Bittle getting caught up in the hysteria, noting the young man has always been able to rise to the occasion when faced with challenges . “One of Nate’s biggest attributes is that nothing seems to get to him,” says the coach. “Every big thing that has been put in front of him, he’s performed really well at, and that’s just a testament to him and his ability to cope with big moments.” Still, the exposure and opportunity brought on by Bittle’s presence for all the Comets has been pretty cool. “It’s not every day that your high school team gets to run an open gym in front of Dana Altman,” adds Schmerbach. “That does a lot of things for your culture real quickly. I would’ve loved to have these opportunities as a high school kid. Just to say I played in front of an Oregon Ducks head coach is pretty cool. Those things are going to continue to happen with Nate, and it’s pretty cool that we get to be a part of this journey with him.” Reach reporter Kris Henry at 541-776-4488, [email protected] , www.facebook.com/krishenryMT or www.twitter.com/Kris_Henry