DATE: Sunday, June 22, 1997                 TAG: 9706200281

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 10   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  103 lines

INVENTOR TRIES TO PLAY THE MARKETING GAME

``I'm sorry, but we just don't accept outside ideas unless they come through an authorized agent.''

``Can you believe these guys?'' said Mike Wray, hanging up the phone after yet another major toy manufacturer has forced him to punt. ``When this thing goes nationwide, I'm not going to give them the time of day. Then they'll be sorry.''

Sorry they didn't get in on the ground floor for ``You're the Coach,'' the painstakingly detailed football board game Wray has labored over since the idea struck him some 15 years ago during Monday Night Football. The game into which the Churchland resident has poured more than $16,000 of his hard-borrowed money.

The game, Wray believes, that will someday make him rich.

``Once it goes nationwide, I think it'll be like Monopoly,'' Wray said. ``Maybe better than Monopoly.

``Wanna play?''

You see, Wray is certain that one game, one exciting series of trips with one of his quarter-sized cardboard footballs across his 8-by-18 inch cardboard field, is all it'll take to turn even the most casual football follower into a ``You're the Coach'' fan, for life.

As evidence, the former 185-pound defensive end from Liberty High in Bedford flips open a black binder and begins thumbing through the 681 hand-written comments from satisfied ``You're the Coach'' users.

``Intriguing and appealing,'' Bethel head coach Dennis Kozlowski wrote.

``A good idea. Different. I enjoyed it,'' reported Indian River's Bernard Griffin.

``A lot of fun,'' noted Deep Creek's Jeff Beard.

``What other invention do you know of where every one of the comments about it is positive?'' said Wray, a Navy ship's serviceman aboard the USS Nassau. ``Maybe toilet paper.''

Still, it quickly becomes clear that the game's biggest fan is its inventor himself. After hunkering down in his ``game room'' - a veritable football shrine covered with pictures of football heroes from Ronald Curry to Troy Aikman and home to more than 100 football tapes and 100,000 football cards - Wray, 29, launches into his invention with all the gusto of William ``Refrigerator'' Perry at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

``Here's Curry back to pass. . . . He's got a tight end over the middle . .

``Look at me,'' Wray said, not five minutes into the action. ``I'm sweating.''

And all this excitement can be yours, too. For a mere $24.95, you get eight pop-out cardboard footballs, the game board, a set of dice and a series of offensive and defensive plays. Everything you need except a coach. You're the coach, remember?

One player calls an offensive play. The other, or the game itself, in a solo game, sets the defense. A roll of the dice executes the play, and a corresponding results card, which factors in fatigue, crowd emotion, choking and even a player's emotional state, tells if it's a loss or gain. Novices can get through a game in two hours; seasoned veterans like Wray need just half that time.

Wray estimates he's sold about 130 games since he got his patent two years ago. Another 370 remain on inventory. Games are available locally at Pat's Fabulous Flea Market in Virginia Beach, on the Internet (www.angelfire.com/va/yourethecoach) and at several college bookstores around the state.

As a sports fan, Wray bleeds Virginia Cavalier orange. But when it comes to the marketing of ``You're the Coach,'' Wray is colorblind.

``The first college in the country to get my game was Virginia Tech,'' he said. ``The lady there was looking at a newspaper story about the game and said, `Hey, it says here you're a Virginia fan.' I said, `Ma'am, that there is a misprint.' ''

Like many inventors, Wray insists he never set out to invent anything. The way he tells it, he was trying to finish an eighth-grade homework assignment while watching a football game when he began sketching out plays. Within a week, he'd turned those sketches into the raw version of ``You're the Coach.''

Wray continued refining his game through high school, a brief stint at Liberty University and through his early Navy years. By 1994, ``You're the Coach'' was ready.

He spent $695 for a patent search, which he considered money well-spent when he was informed that nothing else like it was on the scene. For another $5,600, one company offered to patent and market his product. But Wray backed off when the company, in a story for Wray's hometown newspaper, said he was born in Virginia Beach.

``They couldn't even get that straight,'' the Bedford native said. ``So I figured I could do it all myself.''

His patent - No. 5494284 - came on his 28th birthday. And for the past year, Wray has relentlessly worked the phones, calling high school and college coaches and trying to get some big name involved in his cause. Detroit Lions receiver Herman Moore was once interested, then backed off. Wray now counts Virginia kicker Rafael Garcia among the game's devotees.

He has already refinanced his car and taken out two loans, but money remains an issue. So is the fact that he's hawking a board game in an increasingly computer age.

``One company said they could put my game on computer for $500,000,'' he said. ``I'm like, OK, let me get my checkbook.' If I had come up with this 10, 20 years ago, I'd be sitting by a swimming pool sipping margaritas.

``But board games can still work. All it's going to take is one big name, one star, to take a look at this. Then this thing is going to really take off.

``Wanna play?'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Mike Wray shows off ``You're the Coach,'' a football game he has

patented. For $24.95, he says, it's the perfect thing for gridiron

devotees.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu