Malaki Starks is a hugger, always has been.

“He’d give you a hug before practice, after practice,” Shane Sorrow, his former youth football coach in Jefferson, Georgia, told The Baltimore Sun. “He’d never curse. He told you he loved you.”

Even when, as a 6-year-old playing against kids a year older in that small town (population 15,756) in the shadow of the University of Georgia where he would later star, he once took a handoff and ran 20 yards backward, out of bounds, behind the bench and down along the track because he didn’t like getting hit.

Before his next time touching the ball, Sorrow told him to run toward the white lines in front of him.

“He was 20 yards ahead of everybody, touchdown,” Sorrow continued in his deep Southern drawl. “It was cash money.”

The Ravens’ newest safety, whom Baltimore selected with the 27th overall pick in the NFL draft Thursday night, has always had a way, on the field and off.

One day, as a sophomore at Jefferson High and already a budding star, his coach, Gene Cathcart, had to leave a film session early to deal with a relative out of state who was battling addiction.

A curious Starks asked an assistant where he was going, and when he didn’t get a full explanation, continued to pry.Later that day, Cathcart said, he got a voicemail from Starks telling him that the coach was family and therefore whoever he was going to see was as well — and to let him and the rest of the team know if he needed anything.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’m 57 years old and I’m not that mature,’” Cathcart told The Sun, a crack in his voice. “He didn’t have to kiss up for playing time. He was already the guy he was.”

The next year, after losing 30-14 in the Class 4A state title game to Marist — the same school that Baltimore All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton prepped at — Starks was giving another hug.

Tearing up from the defeat, he noticed assistant coach Devon Gales heading toward him in a wheelchair as he was walking off the field. Gales, a former college player at Southern, had been paralyzed during a 2015 game against Georgia at Sanford Stadium.

Starks leaned over and the two embraced for several seconds, a moment that was captured in a photograph that still hangs in Cathcart’s office and is even closer to his heart.

“Here’s an example of someone who’s literally the pride of his hometown,” Cathcart said. “He loves the game and the game has loved him back.”

It didn’t matter that Starks was once homeless. When he was between the third and sixth grades, his mom Tisha and dad Larry bounced between hotels and a relative’s living room or a spare couch to find shelter wherever they could for Malaki and his older sister Mariah.

His parents kept working and kept attending all of his practices and games and eventually things got better.

The experience also had a profound and shaping impact.

“I think when you look back on things that me and my family have been through, just being able to stay true to ourselves, but also keep God first,” Starks said Friday during his introductory news conference in Owings Mills. “Things happen for a reason, and you may never know, and you may know right away, but just having faith in that and staying true to ourselves is what really got me to my point today.”

Athleticism and football IQ, among myriad attributes, didn’t hurt, either.

In addition to being a top football recruit coming out of high school, Starks was a track star, too.

He won the 4A individual state title in long jump (23 feet, 7 inches) and flashed elite speed by running the 100-meter dash in 10.55 seconds.

Once he got to Georgia, his impact on the football field was immediate.

On the first series of his college career, he recorded his first interception in leaping, dazzling fashion, picking off Oregon quarterback and future Denver Broncos first-round pick Bo Nix.

Two games later in his first start in a game against South Carolina, he snagged another one on a wheel route pass intended for a running back.

Starks finished the season with 68 tackles, two interceptions and seven pass breakups — but that was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

As a sophomore, Starks was even better as a first-team Associated Press All-American selection and finalist for the Bronko Nagurski (top defender) and Jim Thorpe (top defensive back) Awards after 52 tackles, three interceptions and seven pass breakups as he helped the Bulldogs to a national championship. Last year, he led Georgia in tackles (77) to go with four tackles for loss, four pass breakups and an interception.

Then came the NFL scouting combine in February.

The 6-foot-1, 197-pound Starks’ athleticism stood out in the form of a 4.5-second 40-yard dash time and 33-inch vertical jump. But it was his 15-minute interview with the Ravens that blew general manager Eric DeCosta, coach John Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Zach Orr away.

“It was remarkable the way that he could discuss football, his awareness, his ability to call out the plays from their defense before we even show the plays, just based on formation,” DeCosta said. “His ability to dissect and talk about what happened at any given play and to know what his teammates were doing on any given play. It was like he was a coach, and when he got up, we were all kind of looking at each other.”

DeCosta said the highest grade Baltimore gives prospects is a 7 and that Starks got that mark in every category.

Harbaugh noted that Starks was given a “red star,” the team’s highest designation for a draft prospect.

It’s easy to see why. In addition to his maturity, production and football IQ, Starks is versatile.

At Georgia, he played multiple positions in the secondary. From deep safety to in the box to even playing some man coverage on receivers — a rare trait for a safety — he was all over the field.

The possibilities are tantalizing to Orr.

“We were already talking about all the different ways [of] how he adds to our defense, man, and we talk about the advantage that we feel like we have here in Baltimore is being positionless, and that’s all over the field, but especially with our secondary,” he said Friday. “He helps create an advantage for us and a disadvantage to the [opposing] offense, because he can line up all over the field for us and be productive along with the other DBs we have in the room, so we’re excited to continue to add to that, and it’s going to be great for us.”

It’s been that way since Starks’ early days.

When he was about 9 or 10 years old, Sorrow said, he was playing defensive end when a toss sweep went the other direction.

He contained his side of the field — then pursued the running back with such speed a verve that he beat the cornerback on that side of the field to make the tackle.

Now, he hopes to be the next in a line of great safeties to play for Baltimore, from Pro Football Hall of Famer Ed Reed to Hamilton now.

He’ll wear No. 24, just as he did in college.

He also hasn’t forgot how far he’s come and the journey that got him to Baltimore.

“I was homeless twice and there was a period of time where I didn’t really see my parents because they were working day shifts, night shifts, whatever the case be,” he said. “But I’ve never seen them not work for anything, and I saw it, and it turned me into who I am today.

“When things don’t go my way, when I don’t know what to do, I put my head down and work. It’s always been what I do.”

Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker @baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1.