No, not affiliated! USSSA, is involved in many youth sports, soccer, football, baseball, etc. I’m not sure about how the other sports are operated. With baseball, the parents provide financial support for the team ( for some teams this may be a grand or more per season) to cover the team expenses, and then must travel (at their expense) to various locations for tournaments. It’s “not” uncommon for these kids to travel out of state to tournaments. Some teams actually get donor support to help finance their local teams.
The kids participate in try-outs, only the better players make the cut. In USSSA Baseball, their are 4 levels of competition, A,AA,AAA, and Majors. The better your team record, the higher you go in the rankings. To become a Majors team, you have to have a pretty good group of dedicated, motivated, skilled kids. These kids play or practice about 9 months of the year. Not uncommon to practice 5 days /week, in the weeks leading up to the season.
My daughter had two boys playing, it was not uncommon for her to be in Monroe, La. with one boy, while her husband, might be in Lake Charles, La. with the other. It requires dedicated parents, as well!
Baseball is very important in their area, the high school baseball coaches follow the local teams pretty carefully. These teams are almost like “farm teams” for the high school baseball program. Their local high school ( a 5 A school) does pretty good in the state playoffs most every year. The USSSA program, provides a stepping-stone for a lot of the high school players!