On the second day of fall camp, Kern County high school coaches spent the evening on Tuesday inside the auditorium at Centennial High for the Kern County Concussion Consortium.

Brain injuries, especially concussions in terms of football players and other sports were the key note on Tuesday in the presentation provided by the Kern High School District.

Area coaches listened as speakers like David Harrington from the Center of Nuero Skills, sports medicine expert Dr. Arnold Lim, internal medicine expert and Bob Elias Hall of Fame member Dr. William F. Baker Jr. and Bakersfield College head athletic trainer Fred Smith discussed numerous topics for coaches to learn more about players safety and the impact of concussions.

There is no such thing as a minor brain injury, Dr. Lim said during his presentation Tuesday evening.

Overall participation up, football numbers down

The CIF state office released the numbers for high school athletic participation for 2017, and as the numbers overall continue to grow to an all-time high, participation in football continues to decrease.

Despite having nearly 100,000 football players in 11-man football state-wide, the number of players in the state has dropped 10 percent over the last 10 years from 107,916 in 2007 to 97,079 this year.

Football is still the most popular sport numbers-wise on the boys side with track and field with the second-most athletes at 56,032, just ahead of soccer (52,795) and basketball (46,114).

Each one of those three sports have all increased in number of participants over the last year, while cross country, the only other boys fall sport played by every school in Kern County, increased by 7.42 percent in the last year.

Soccer remains as the most popular girls sport with 47,139 athletes in the state, following track and field (46,276) and volleyball (44,526).

Lacrosse, which is not a sport played in the Central Section, is the fastest growing sport for both genders statewide.

With only about a dozen seniors on the football team, one would assume Liberty football coach Bryan Nixon has concerns heading into the season.

That doesnt seem to be the case.

The youth is not a big deal, Nixon said. Its just the attitude and effort that we look at. Whoever shows up to play, shows up to play. If its a senior, junior or sophomore, whoever it is, it is. We are excited about this group because they are good kids and fun to be around and they work hard everyday.

Part of the juniors leading the way for Liberty are quarterback Isaiah Hill, running backs Sam Stewart, Jr., offensive linemen Daniel Viveros and Brycen Lindsey, linebacker Anthony Villanueva and defensive backs Hunter Riley and Kaden Bolten.

Inside the gym at 7 a.m. on Tuesday as the football team was already an hour into practice, the Liberty volleyball team was a lively and large bunch.

The defending Central Section Division I champions had 62 players on the court at the second day of practice for all three levels.

Its exciting, Liberty coach Amy Parker said. The atmosphere in the gym (Monday) was really good on day 1, so its fun.

Leading the way for Liberty will be returning starters Lauryn Burt, Liana Caroccio, Kaitlan Tucker and recent Oregon commit Elise Ferreira.

I have a solid group returning that have been here for a couple of years now, Parker said. It makes my job easy. They run the show and know what to do.

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Trevor's Fall Diary: Early morning at Liberty and concussion talk in the evening cap Day 2 of fall camp travels - The Bakersfield Californian