The Turkmenistan Special Olympics floor hockey team arrived Monday at the Federal Express hangar and camped next to Field of Play three. Off went the gray and black uniforms, and on went the floor hockey gear. Some had orange and white striped socks, others blue and white. Some wore red uniforms with yellow sleeves, others had white collars. Nothing really matched.

The 13-member Turkmenistan team flew into Anchorage Thursday morning from their west-central Asia country, a former Soviet republic which consists mostly of desert. They didn't have helmets, gloves or shin guards, and brought with them a canvas bag of wooden floor-

hockey sticks that look like the ends of old brooms -- nothing like the gear used by other competing countries.

But by Monday, the team had borrowed helmets, shin guards and fancy hockey sticks. Their goalie wore pads over his legs for the first time in his short career. A few days ago, coaches and athletes designed another set of uniforms after purchasing white T-shirts, black spray paint, and stencils from Wal-Mart, said Joe McDonnell, the team's translator. Those uniforms will be used later this week.

"They don't have much," McDonnell said.

Team coaches and athletes hardly speak English, and have used McDonnell, a military translator stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base, as their communication lifeline. The military gave McDonnell, who speaks Russian, a leave of absence to volunteer at the Special Olympics.

On Monday, he translated directions from officials and carried their garbage bin of gear. But the athletes -- boys 13 to 15 years old who all go to school together -- took care of each other, he said.

The team is considered a "unified" team, meaning athletes play alongside "partners" who are not mentally retarded. They play as teammates, working together for overall success. Special Olympics floor hockey is an adaptation of ice hockey, without the skates, winged poles, hard pucks and inclement weather. Athletes use sticks to push a felt disc around the rink. About 800 athletes -- 35 percent of the 2,350 competing -- compete in the sport.

As the team readied for a Monday morning match against Monaco, they helped each other dress. They tied shoes, helped pull up socks and walked arm-in-arm to the field, making sure everybody was ready.

Even without uniforms the Special Olympics spirit was obvious.

As the team passed the soft puck back and forth on field three, several people showed up holding Turkmenistan flags and posters. Chester Valley Elementary School and Elmendorf's Club Beyond, a youth group, adopted the country and will cheer for them throughout the Special Olympics. The group plans to do something special -- maybe a trip to Chuck E. Cheese or Ultrazone -- for the team before the athletes return home.

"You want to take them all home and feed them and fatten them up," said Amy King, who brought her daughter, Emily, and two sons, Daniel and Darius. The athletes were much shorter and skinnier than most other teams. The borrowed helmets were so big that some athletes had to wear fleece hats under them.

"These guys make up for their lack of size with their quickness," said Kevin Chelf, Club Beyond director.

McDonnell described them as scrappy. Even on Saturday, when they faced a much larger United States team from Massachusetts, the Turkmenistan athletes dove for the pucks and "ran circles around them," he said, even though they eventually lost the preliminary round, 2-0.

On Monday, Monaco couldn't match that quickness. And while the Turkmenistan players aggressively competed in their 3-0 win, each player still took part, including those more disabled than others.

At one point, one of the highly-skilled Turkmenistan players stopped, turned and passed the puck to his most impaired teammate. The teammate froze for a moment with his stick on the puck. Though the puck could have easily been stolen by a Monaco opponent or rescued by one of his fellow teammates, both sides let him be for a moment until he pushed it forward a couple feet.

Finally in play, a Monaco player swept the puck away. The Turkmenistan player threw his stick in frustration, but one of his teammates retrieved it for him, patted him on the back and calmed him down.

They celebrated with hugs and gave thumbs-up to cheering fans.

For the last few days, teams have competed in "divisioning" rounds where they are placed in categories based on performance capabilities. Competition begins today.

Following the game against Monaco, team coach Magomet Bashirov said the team was just getting used to the time change. They suffered serious jet lag after traveling for more than a day, he said. The highlight so far was seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger at Sunday's opening ceremony.

McDonnell said there is another highlight, maybe not so appreciated by team coaches. A friend of McDonnell's dropped a Sega Dreamcast video game system off at the Barratt Inn, where the team is staying. The athletes can't get enough, and are still up playing at 3 or 4 a.m., he said.

"They are wild about it."

Reporter Molly Brown can be reached at mbrown@adn.com or 257-4343.