Following the close of his college career, Owens was selected in the fourth round (88th overall) of the 1982 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics, but did not make the team. After a failed tryout with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League, he signed with Athletes in Action Canada, and played exhibitions against a number of U.S. and Canadian colleges. In 1987, he turned to coaching, accepting an assistant coach position at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, where he has remained for over thirty years.