Andrea Armstrong (born May 18, 1982) is an American who is a former

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. Armstrong hails from Lakeside, Oregon, but was born in

Longview, Washington Longview is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, United States. It is the principal city of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cowlitz County. Longview's population was 37,818 at the time of the 2 ...

. After a stellar

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

basketball career, Armstrong began her collegiate sports career in 2001, with the

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public insti ...

basketball team. She played for Kansas State until the 2002 season. She was a 2002 Academic All-Big 12 selection. Armstrong transferred to the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

in 2003, which was a red shirt season in accordance with NCAA regulations. She was team co-captain for the 2004 season. She claimed to have converted to Islam soon after her arrival at the

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

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 in 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 A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

, 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. She averaged three points and two rebounds per game for South Florida. In October, Armstrong also left Florida and returned to Oregon, where she e-mailed a local newspaper her reversion to Christianity and renunciation of Islam, and regretfully retracted her conversion to the latter.

Kansas State and South Florida statistics

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1982 births Living people American former Muslims American women's basketball players Kansas State Wildcats women's basketball players South Florida Bulls women's basketball players Forwards (basketball) Centers (basketball) Basketball players from Oregon Basketball players from Washington (state) People from Coos County, Oregon People from Longview, Washington {{US-women-basketball-bio-stub