Brothers share Grid Quiz championship

Brothers Dwayne and Kevin Dartez have been playing the Grid Quiz as long as the New Iberia Recreation Department and The Daily Iberian have sponsored the weekly college football picking contest.

It seems almost fitting that the two shared first place when the season ended recently, the first time in the 25-year history of the Grid Quiz that there has been a tie for the season-ending prize. The two each received gift certificates valued at $100 to an area merchant.

“The last three weeks I had bad weeks,” said Kevin Dartez, 41. “I had a three or four game lead on him and Pat Thibodeaux. I’m not upset. If anybody would catch me, I’d want it to be him.”

Dwayne Dartez, 45, said the competition between the two of them is completely friendly.

“We don’t even worry one bit about it,” he said. “The whole family does it (plays the Grid Quiz). Even my little boy and my grandmother have done it.”

The two brothers, who are both carriers for the U.S. Post Office in New Iberia, have different strategies for playing the game. Neither has won the Grid Quiz before, though Kevin has twice finished second.

“He’s been better at it than me the past few years,” said Kevin. “He pays a lot more attention. I go by instincts, gut feeling. I look at the point spread, and if it’s close, I go with my gut feeling.”

Dwayne studies the games more to make his picks.

“The first week I just went in the dark,” he said. “I was so-so.”

After that, he went more with his usual system for picking the games. On Tuesdays he studies the Sagarin Index for small schools and the betting line for big schools, then looks at how teams perform in road games and how they compare with any common opponents they’ve played.

That helped him pick up those two games at the end of the year that he needed to get to tie for the championship. This time around, though, he didn’t try to pick any big upsets at the end of the year to catch up, and it worked.

“I had a bad week one week and Kevin jumped on me,” said Dwayne. “And Pat Thibodeaux was right there. I just picked like I normally do. I didn’t pick any upsets.”

The winners each correctly picked 182 of 237 games. Thibodeaux finished with 181 correct picks, with Jude Borres and Steven Templeton finishing with 179 correct picks.

The New Iberia Recreation Department runs the contest and sponsors the weekly prizes, while The Daily Iberian publishes the contest and sponsors the year-end prize.