FOXBORO - Professional athletes cheat by taking performance-enhancing drugs.

A coach disregards league orders against videotaping opponents and when caught, blames a difference in "interpretation."

Young athletes are constantly bombarded with conflicting messages from professional sports - be sportsmanlike, but trash-talk your opponents; lie, but don't get caught.

However, questionable or unsportsmanlike conduct by role models need not poison lessons youngsters take from sport, says Jeffrey Pratt Beedy, a leading sports ethicist and founder of an international program to use sports as a positive influence in children's development.

"Sports can be a powerful medium, either positive or negative, for the social and emotional development of children," said Beedy, founder of Sports Plus Global, which seeks to use sports as a common language to promote peace and healthy patterns of development in kids. But Beedy said responsible coaching and parenting can counteract the negative effects of bad behavior by professional athletes while reinforcing positive concepts of fair play and teamwork.

Beedy will be speaking on sports and children's development several times during the New England Youth Sports Festival this weekend at Gillette Stadium. The conference runs from Friday through Sunday.

Because youth sports players as young as 5 have little experience to help them interpret actions attributed to professional athletes, adults and coaches in youth sports share a major responsibility to listen to kids and engage them in conversation about what they see and hear.

"We need to be talking with our kids and doing so in a purposeful way," said Beedy, who remembers discussing boxer Mike Tyson's actions in biting off part of the ear of opponent Evander Holyfield with members of a team he coached. Some athletes, he said, found the incident at least partly humorous but changed their minds after a team discussion.

Beedy did not directly address recent congressional hearings at which a former athletic trainer accused Yankees and former Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens of taking illegal performance enhancing drugs or allegations that the New England Patriots illegally videotaped opponents, including a pre-Super Bowl walk-through by the St. Louis Rams. The taping scandal is being referred to as "spygate."

Coach Bill Belichick, who was fined $500,000 by the NFL in connection with taping of sideline signals used by the New York Jets, said he misinterpreted an order from the league office. The coach has denied taping practices or walk-throughs of any teams, however.

Beedy, the headmaster of St. Martin's Episcopal School in New Orleans, has written a book on positive influences in sports called "Sports PLUS: Positive Learning Using Sports." Beedy's research has been used internationally to promote concepts of peace, understanding and fair play that extend beyond sports, including the Doves Olympic Movement working with Turkish and Greek children on the island of Cyprus.

The New England Sports Festival will feature a wide range of clinics, workshops and exhibits aimed at young athletes and their families, including opportunities for athletes to practice their techniques in football, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball and field and ice hockey.

Hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. each day. Admission is $10 for adults, $20 for young athletes planning to participate in clinics and $5 for youth non-participants.

There will also be an exhibit display area showcasing sports camps and facilities, products and leagues and a rock-climbing wall. For more information about the New England Youth Sports Festival, check http://www.newenglandyouthsportsfestival.com.

A liability waiver, available on the Web site, must be completed by parents for all children participating in clinics.