Norfolk State University athletics director Marty L. Miller announced Wednesday that women’s basketball coach Tara A. Owens will be reassigned within the department, effective May 18, 2009. Her reassignment is scheduled to run through July 2009.

“Coach Owens indicated that she wanted to step down to pursue a career change, and we honored her request,” Miller said. “We appreciate her two years of service and wish her much success in achieving her future goals.”

Owens compiled a 6-50 record in her two seasons leading the Spartans.

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 the 2009-10 season.

Clark served as head coach at FAMU from 2001-08 and at WSSU from 1994-2001. Her career record is 211-194 (.521). Clark’s teams at FAMU made three MEAC Tournament semifinals appearances in her seven seasons.

Clark is no stranger to Norfolk State. She served as an assistant women’s basketball coach 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 was a four-year letterwinner at Hampton (1980-84), which was coached by Sweat at the time. She earned her bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Hampton in 1984, and her master’s in sports administration from Penn State in 1986.