SURPRISE, Ariz. -- For most fans who follow baseball to a certain degree, seeing the six-foot-six-inch frame of Adam Dunn stroll out onto the infield grass of a baseball diamond is not an unfamiliar experience.

The longtime MLB veteran was once a fixture at the top of the league's yearly home run leaderboards, socking 462 longballs during his 14-year career in the bigs. He made two All-Star Games, earned MVP votes in three different years, and received an induction into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame back in 2018, a resume that earned him a reputation as one of the most feared sluggers to step in the box throughout the 2000s and early 2010s.

What spectators at the 17U National Team Championships Arizona might not have expected to see throughout the week, however, is Dunn sauntering out to the third base coaches' box during numerous different games. There he stood for four consecutive days, though, working to fulfill the responsibilites of a new role: manager of Marucci Elite Texas.

Dunn, now 43 years old and nine years removed from the end of his playing career, helped found the Houston-based organization back in 2013 in what he describes as a matter of happenstance more than anything.

"Honestly, it kind of just fell in my lap," Dunn said about the beginning of Marucci Elite Texas. "It was one of those things where me and my buddy, he had a kid playing and we started a team, and the next thing you know, we had 20 and then 100 and it kept growing. With the high school kids, we have two or three teams at each group, and we try to put them in the best position possible."

It may have started from humble beginnings, but Marucci Elite Texas has grown exponentially since its inception. The organization now has affiliates located in six different cities across the Lone Star State, seen over 200 players commit to play collegiately, and had one of its alumni --Shane Baz of the Tampa Bay Rays-- debut in the majors in 2021.

This level of success has come very fast, and through it all, Dunn has tried to keep a very hands-off approach to coaching in order to allow his players to work through the trials and tribulations that come with the process of improving as a young player.

"This is a game of failure, so the way that I try to coach them and lead is to just let them play," Dunn said. "A lot of teams are doing anything they can to win, but we just let them go out there and try to let them play, call their own game, things like that. When they make a mistake, which is going to happen every game, it's a lot easier to coach in that moment than when you're telling them what to do and then they screw that up."

Even with all that they have accomplished so far, one thing that Dunn and Marucci Elite Texas had not done before was try their hand at a National Team Championships tournament, as this week's showing at the 17U age group marked their debut at the event. Despite this inexperience, though, they made their presence felt early, outscoring their opponents 39-13 in pool play and blitzing their way to a 4-0 record.

This hot start earned Marucci Elite Texas the No. 3 seed in the playoff bracket, and in its first elimination game on Thursday, it picked up right where it left off, erasing a late 2-0 deficit to down MBA Navy 2024 and advance to the round of 16. Its run would end here, however, as it was unable to rally once more against Swarm Red Elite National 2024 and fell by a final score of 11-3.

Exiting where they did was not what Dunn was hoping for when he and the team got to Arizona, but after bowing out in the playoffs, he still expressed pride in how his players performed throughout the week.

"We definitely competed," Dunn said. "We have a great roster, we just ran out of gas. We face really good competition in Texas, but I enjoyed this tournament because we faced teams we've never faced before. I think the kids really enjoyed it, and we'll definitely be back."

This week at the National Team Championships Arizona isn't the last time that Dunn will get to coach this specific group of players with Marucci Elite Texas, but when it is time to see them off, he has a couple things in mind that he wants them to take away from their time with the program.

"Just knowing how to play the game, first and foremost," Dunn said. "There are a lot of opinions, but there is still a right way and a wrong way to play the game, and I think we do a really good job of playing the game hard. If they take away anything, it's to have fun and play the game hard."