Playyofi: Sports Recruitment & Social Ecosystem
A vertical social network and recruitment platform designed to bridge the gap between athletes and coaches through real-time engagement, professional scouting profiles, and direct networking tools.
The Problem
The sports recruitment landscape is often fragmented, with athlete talent hidden across siloed platforms and coaches lacking a centralized, social-first environment to discover and communicate with prospects.
The Solution
Engineered a high-performance Next.js 15 platform that integrates social feed dynamics with specialized recruitment workflows. Built a role-based architecture (Athlete vs. Coach) featuring deep profile metadata, a robust social graph, and secure messaging capabilities.
Key Features
Dynamic Social Feed with multi-media posts, reposts, and real-time interactions
Role-specific onboarding for Athletes (metrics/availability) and Coaches (institution/division)
High-fidelity Profile System with media uploads and rich athletic metadata
Bidirectional Social Graph supporting follow/follower relationships and discovery
Integrated Direct Messaging for secure coach-athlete communication
OAuth 2.0 and OTP-verified authentication flows with session persistence
Advanced Search and Notification modules for talent discovery and engagement
Architecture & Tech Decisions
Feature-oriented directory structure for independent module scaling
Server-side rendering (SSR) for SEO-optimized athlete and post pages
Stateful orchestration layer using custom hooks and React Query mutations
Centralized Auth Store for cross-application identity persistence
Modular API layer with strict TypeScript interface enforcement
Challenges Faced
Architecting a scalable social graph to handle high-concurrency follow/unfollow interactions
Managing complex, role-based UI states and conditional onboarding flows
Optimizing image processing and delivery for high-resolution athlete media and banners
What I'd Improve
Implement real-time video highlight reels with automated transcoding
Integrate AI-driven talent matching based on athletic metrics and coach requirements
Develop a 'Live Scouting' feature for real-time game updates and evaluations
Created a centralized hub for sports talent, transforming the recruitment process into a continuous social experience and increasing visibility for athletes in under-scouted regions.