BY ALMETA DAVIS/CONTRIBUTING WRITER

NORFOLK—After spending a number of years at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston Salem, N.C., the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) relocated to the Scope Arena in Norfolk for its 2013 basketball tournament.

The MEAC is an association with 13 NCAA Division 1 Universities sponsoring 15 sports with automatic bids for postseason competition in baseball, football and men’s and women’s basketball, tennis, softball, and volleyball.

One person that is no stranger to the Scope Arena, is a former Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) official and now the Coordinator of Men’s Basketball Officials for MEAC Larry (Chuck) Rose of Courtland.

Basketball officiating has been a love of Larry’s life since starting it as a work-study job officiating intramural basketball games at Hampton Institute, now Hampton University.

Larry climbed the ladder from recreational basketball to high school. As he became more experienced and known for his skills he made his way through a number of conferences in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), such as the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East, Colonial, Southeastern, Big 12, and the Sunbelt Conference just to name a few.

Rose retired from refereeing in 2008, after serving more than 36 years as a basketball official. He became an NCAA official in 1976 and an NCAA Division I official in 1982. He estimated that he worked more than 2,300 collegiate games, including four Final Fours.

Today, Rose is in charge of 175 officials, which he personally selects. The selection process is a lengthy one. Thousands of people want to get into officiating in the MEAC conference. “They must attend my camp for officials,” he explained. “I never hire a candidate the first time I see him/her at camp. My final decision may take me seeing them at least three times.”

He continued, “I have to look at them to see if they have the qualities to become a college level referee. I check into their background, because integrity plays a big part in becoming an official. I prefer candidates with families because experience has shown me that they are more stable.”

“I look at their performance on the court at my camps. They call games played by Nike™ All Americans, who are the top high school basketball players in the nation. The individual must have a strong mind and will, with the ability to adapt on time, according to the rules of the game. Once all those qualities are there, then you must be able must be able to apply them in a split second. It is then and only then do I hire them,” added Rose.

During the post game review with the officials, which is normally not accessible to reporters, Rose was able to give a brief synopsis of every call made during the game, even giving critiques on what to look for in individual players. When asked how he does that without notes, he replied with a big smile, “After 40 years in this business – that comes from instinct – all part of the skills needed to be a good official.”

He continued, “The skills you get at camp, in the classroom and the experience from calling thousands of games – it is because of all of those things combined that I’ve been able to develop a keen sense of what is happening at any given moment during a game and retain it”.

MEAC neutral observers of officials, Willie Brown, Russell Wards and George Williams are all in agreement with Rose’s approach to officiating. “Larry always sees you as an individual. He is very hands on, not only telling you what you should be doing, but also showing you through demonstration. He cares about families and stresses that you maintain that balance between family and work at all times. He has the knowledge and leadership skills needed to train and develop top-notch college basketball officials.”

After having retired from two positions, which kept him on the road most of the time, Rose attributes his success to a strong supportive home base headed up by his wife Yvonne. Together they have five children, Dion, Jackie, LaKisha, Traci and Michael.