Kid Stuff Enriches Hammer Throwers’ Careers : Matadors: Balancing parenthood and athletics isn’t easy, but Youngberg, Albers aren’t complaining.

It’s a common sight at any national championship track and field meet.

When they have finished competing, many athletes head to the nearest pay phone to call their families and give them the news of their performance.

Paul Albers and Dave Youngberg of Cal State Northridge did that after finishing third and fifth in the hammer throw in the NCAA Division II championships at Armstrong Field at Hampton University on Thursday.

Except Albers and Youngberg probably discussed something that few of the other competitors did. Specifically: How are the kids?

In addition to being Division II All-Americans, Albers and Youngberg also are fathers.

Albers, a senior, has a 2-week-old daughter. Youngberg, a junior, has a 4-month-old son.

“It makes competing a little bit more difficult,” Albers said. “I mean getting up in the middle of the night gets you pretty tired, but I’m not complaining.”

Neither is Youngberg.

“It’s great,” he said. “I’m lucky because I’ve got a very understanding wife who puts up with my training and my going to school. She supports me.”

While parenthood appears to be a joy for Albers and Youngberg, it may influence their future athletic careers in different ways.

Albers, who has a personal best of 186 feet 10 inches, would like to continue throwing after leaving college, but he realizes that finding time to train while raising a family might be asking too much of himself and his wife.

“I’d like to do it,” Albers said, “but training takes a lot of time. I’m starting a family and that has to come first.”

Youngberg does not dispute that point, but he would like to throw for at least another two years.

Having improved his personal best to 181-8 this season, the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. champion plans to redshirt at Northridge next season, then compete at the Division I level in 1992.

“I just want to take a year to really train and get in shape,” Youngberg said. “Then come back and see what I can do at the Division I level.”

Northridge assistant Dan Lange figures Youngberg can do plenty.

“He’s one of the naturally strongest people I’ve seen,” said Lange, himself a 1988 All-American in the hammer. “It’s easy to say, but I think he could be really good if he got in shape and really hit the weights.”