Rams cornerback Coty Sensabaugh has a mission to help the less fortunate

Rams cornerback Coty Sensabaugh came away from a five-day mission trip to the Dominican Republic in late-June with some lifelong memories.

The primary objective of the trip was for Sensabaugh, his wife and more than a dozen family members and friends to distribute 542 pairs of new shoes to needy children at two schools, a boys and girls club and a church in the northern coastal town of Puerto Plata.

There was also time for Sensabaugh, a former Tennessee Titans defensive back, to play basketball, soccer and dominoes with the locals. He learned his first magic trick from one child. He used his limited Spanish or an interpreter to speak to as many kids as he could.

“Those kids in the community … they had nothing, but they had everything,” Sensabaugh, 27, said. “They were so accepting of us, so giving and loving.”

But ask Sensabaugh why the trip — organized through “Soles 4 Souls,” a Tennessee-based nonprofit organization — was “life-changing,” as he put it, and one young boy comes to mind.

At each distribution site, volunteers measure children’s feet “because, surprisingly, they don’t even know what shoe size they are,” Sensabaugh said. The size is written on kids’ hands. Volunteers then clean feet thoroughly before giving the kids shoes, which will help reduce the risk of disease and infection.

“There was one kid who was 13 or 14 and he wore a grown-up size that we just so happened to run out of,” Sensabaugh said. “The lady next to me, who was helping us clean feet, she was panicking, trying to find a pair of shoes.

“So one of the little kids who came through earlier who was maybe 5 or 6 years old — we cleaned his feet and put some new shoes on him — he saw the lady had gotten up, and he took her spot and started cleaning this kid’s feet. Seeing that … that’s what it was all about for me. It was like, ‘This kid gets it.’ ”

So does Sensabaugh, who is competing with Lamarcus Joyner and E.J. Gaines for the right-cornerback job opposite Trumaine Johnson and will see plenty of playing time in Gregg Williams’ defense, which features multiple defensive backs.

“It’s going to be a great race,” Rams Coach Jeff Fisher said of the cornerback competition. The 5-foot-11, 187-pound Sensabaugh is “going to play, obviously. One way or another, whether he’s a starter or not, he’s going to fit in a package.”

Sensabaugh is just coming into the bigger money of NFL free agency, having signed a three-year, $15-million deal with the Rams last spring, $6.5 million of which is guaranteed.

The former Clemson standout made $2.5 million in four years with the Titans, contributing as a slot corner in the nickel package for three years before starting 15 games and intercepting two passes, returning one 26 yards for a touchdown, last season.

But no matter what his tax bracket, he’s always had a passion for giving, one that was instilled in him by his grandmother, “who always told me that no matter how good you are on the basketball court or football field … people will remember you for how you treat them and how you bless them,” Sensabaugh said.

That’s why Sensabaugh and his wife, Dominique Jordan — the couple was married on May 28 — decided to forgo a traditional honeymoon in favor of the mission trip and ask that, in lieu of gifts, wedding guests contribute money or shoes.

“The idea came from my wife, who did some mission trips in college,” Sensabaugh said. “I did some research on Soles 4 Souls, and anyone who knows me knows I’ve always had a passion for shoes, so it just went hand in hand.”

The Dominican trip was so fulfilling that Sensabaugh said he and his wife plan to do a mission trip every year, with Haiti or Jamaica in their sights for next year.

“It just gives you a different perspective,” Sensabaugh said. “It shows you that no matter what you’re going through, someone else is always going through something worse. When my wife and I have kids, we want to get them involved in mission work. It’s fun.”

If Sensabaugh has one regret it’s that his Spanish was not good enough to converse easily with the kids, which is why he’s going to brush up on the language and try to learn Creole if he goes to Haiti.

“I couldn’t be as intimate as I’d like — when I was talking to the kids, sometimes I had to have a translator,” Sensabaugh said. “I’m going to try my best to learn the language so I can communicate on my own without feeling handicapped.”

The last few months have been a whirlwind for Sensabaugh, who grew up in Kingsport, Tenn. He went from his wedding in Georgia to the Rams’ organized team activities (OTAs) in early June and spent several weeks finalizing details for the Dominican trip on June 23-27.

He and Dominique returned to Tennessee to pack for the move to Southern California. Training camp at UC Irvine began in late-July, and the Rams open the season on Sept. 12 at San Francisco.

There has been no time for the couple to go on a traditional honeymoon, but after their experience in the Dominican Republic, Sensabaugh isn’t sure he needs one.

“Man, every day above ground is a honeymoon, honestly,” he said. “We enjoy doing stuff like that. That’s just how we were raised, where our hearts are. That was better than any honeymoon we could have.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna