Andrea Armstrong
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Andrea Armstrong (born 18 May 1982) is an American who is a former NCAA basketball player.
After a stellar high school basketball career, Armstrong began her collegiate sports career in 2000, with the Kansas State University basketball team. After transferring to another school, she returned there for the 2002 season.
Armstrong transferred again, before the 2004 season, to the University of South Florida. She claimed to have converted to Islam by the time she arrived at the Florida campus.
Armstrong created a controversy when she requested to be allowed to play in Islamically appropriate attire. The school initially did not want to allow her to do this, and Armstrong lost her scholarship on the first week of September of that year.
On September 11, the school announced it was going to back off and let Armstrong wear modest athletic attire for their basketball games, and re-instate her scholarship. Armstrong and school officials had met the previous day to discuss her reinstatement. Ahmed Bedler, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was present at the reunion, and he declared that "An athlete should not be asked to choose between engaging in healthy sporting activities and her deeply held religious beliefs".
Days later, Armstrong left the team.
Armstrong averaged three points and two rebounds per game for The University of South Florida.
