They're not the Pittsburgh Penguins and they don't play on ice.

But they care just as much.

They are the players who comprise the Butler County Special Olympics floor hockey team.

The 24 players, coaches and volunteers convene each Tuesday night in the McQuistion Elementary School gym from November to March to practice and scrimmage. Those two-hour sessions are all part of the preparation for the Pennsylvania Indoor Games, slated for March 7-8 in York.

“You're required to have eight practices before you can compete in the Games,” BCSO floor hockey coach Renee Spohn said. “We get in a lot more than that. As soon as the state's Fall Games end at Villanova, we begin the following week.

“This is all about friendship, fun, exercise ... and you sweat a lot.”

Floor hockey is played with regular hockey nets. Wooden poles serve as sticks and the puck is a light disc with a hole in the center. Players place the end of the sticks in the hole to control the puck.

Players on the team range from age 8 to 49. Clint Atkinson, 49, is the oldest player on the team.

“He's been playing it since they started a team in the county,” his mother, Marjorie Atkinson, said. “Clint's been playing for 35 to 40 years now.

“This game has helped him to develop himself as a person. He loves to talk and this is great social time for him.”

With the exception of a few additions each year, “this has been the same team for a long time,” Atkinson added.

Spohn said learning to play for a team and abiding by rules of the game “help our athletes transition into adult life and when they get jobs.

“They learn they have to abide by rules just like everybody else.”

Players must be at least 8 before they are eligible to play on a floor hockey team. They can begin practicing skills at age 6.

The floor hockey sessions each Tuesday begin with exercise. Then players are divided into six stations, where they work on passing and other different skills.

Carl Bachman, whose three sons all played high school hockey at Butler, has been bringing his family each Tuesday night to help with the floor hockey team as volunteers. They've been doing so for 12 years.

“The Bachmans have been invaluable to this program,” Spohn said. “I don't know if we could do this without them.”

Bachman said he got involved as a volunteer through his wife, who works in the special education field.

“We wanted to get our boys involved in something charitable and they love hockey, so we started bringing them here,” he said. “They enjoy helping out.

“It's worth it when you see one of these kids score a goal. Their faces just light up.”

Bachman was serving as one of the referees Tuesday in the annual scrimmage between the BCSO squad and area law enforcement officers.

“This is the highlight of their year,” Atkinson said of the Special Olympians. “They love to talk about playing the police.”

Jim Long, a state trooper from the North Hills, was among 10 law enforcement officers on hand for Tuesday night's scrimmage.

“It's about awareness more than anything else,” Long said. “We support Special Olympics. We come out for a night and play the (BCSO) basketball and volleyball teams, too.”

Long is also involved with the Law Enforcement Torch Run. Officers from Philadelphia organize running with a torch via relay from their city to the Spring Games at Penn State in June. Officers from Pittsburgh do the same.

They convene and light the Olympic torch for the Games at Penn State.

“It takes a lot of planning and organization,” Long said. “But this goes on with law enforcement officers and Special Olympics in every state.”

“It's a special program,” Spohn said. “It takes a lot of people to make it that way.”