Swipe right, swipe right, swipe right... You have a match!

The burst of serotonin tingles as you’ve received instant approval, that immediate confidence boost that keeps Tinder users coming back for more. The match screen fades and you’re anxious to see a potential date or maybe even a future partner, only this time it’s not. 

UGA Women’s Rugby Club? What is this?  

At the University of Georgia, the women’s rugby team is almost entirely made up of players new to rugby. So recruitment is crucial to keep their club alive. 

“Pretty much no one has ever played before but one or two girls,” said UGA flanker Marlyse Sifre. “I wouldn’t be playing if it wasn’t for Josephina... and Tinder.”

Josephina Tam is a co-captain for UGA and the mastermind behind the team's use of the well-known dating app as a recruitment tool. 

“We joked around about making a team Tinder and realized there was nothing to lose—it was free exposure,” Tam said.

Tam got to work. She named the profile "Ugarugby" and linked a fake email and Facebook account. She added recruitment photos, then spiced up the profile with some pictures of puppies. Tam set the preferred distance to 5-10 miles to keep the search radius within Athens, GA.

“The key is to set the orientation as non-binary because Tinder will give you women of all sexual orientations to swipe through,” Tam said.

Tam recommends other schools use this recruiting method. 

“In the SEC, we have to overcome sorority commitments and scheduling around football game day so numbers can get thin," Tam said.

The University of Georgia is a massive school with around 30,000 undergraduate students, but recruiting isn’t always that easy. 

“While we have tons of students, there are hundreds of clubs, sports, and organizations to be a part of,” Tam said. “Getting a table at the club sports fair costs money from our club so Tinder is a free recruiting tool.”

Tam feels UGA can boost its Tinder game. 

“We are thinking about paying for premium to get unlimited swipes and 'superlike' capability,” Tam said. “Sometimes we run into a girl’s profile that we think would be a fit for our team ‘like jumping out of planes or squatting decent weight’ and we want to get her a notification.”

Often the team profile gets passed up, but even getting the word out about the team is a success for Tam and the UGA Women’s Rugby Club. At a bare minimum, Tinder is free advertisement for the club, but maybe, just maybe, this recruitment innovation is the real thing.