Owens out as NSU women's basketball coach

Posted to: Norfolk Sports Women's College Basketball
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NSU women's basketball head coach, Tara Owens, left, gives instructions during team practice earlier this year. Owens compiled a 6-50 record with the Spartans. (L. Todd Spencer | The Virginian-Pilot)

The Virginian-Pilot
© May 14, 2009

Staff report

Tara Owens, who won just six games in her two seasons as Norfolk State's women's basketball coach, is being reassigned, the school said Wednesday.

Athletic director Marty Miller also announced that former Florida A&M and Winston-Salem State head coach Debra Clark will serve as the Spartans' interim head coach for next season.

"Coach Owens indicated that she wanted to step down to pursue a career change, and we honored her request," Miller said in a statement released by NSU.

Owens compiled a 6-50 record with the Spartans.

Clark was head coach at Florida A&M from 2001-08 and at Winston-Salem State from 1994-2001. Her career record is 211-194. Clark's teams at FAMU made three MEAC tournament semifinals in her seven seasons.

Clark is no stranger to Norfolk State. She was an assistant under James Sweat from 1987-94, helping the Spartans win three CIAA titles and make three consecutive appearances in the NCAA Division II tournament in the early 1990s. Clark was a health and physical education instructor at NSU during those years, a position she returned to for the 2008-09 school year after leaving FAMU.

Clark also was a four-year letterwinner at Hampton (1980-84), which Sweat coached at the time.

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Out

Submitted by torphm39743 on Thu, 05/14/2009 at 7:31 am.

I guess the boot camp, tough-love approach didn't work so well. You can't just pound on players, you have to give them the carrot some of the time as well. And why do I suspect that NSU gave her a choice of being reassigned or being fired? Then she presumably chose the former, allowing NSU to feel justified in acting like it was her initiative all along.